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Belgium trial starts over death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in UK truck
- The trial of 23 people in Bruges follows prison sentences handed down in Britain in January to seven men for manslaughter
- The bodies of the 31 men and eight women were found in a refrigerated truck near London in October 2019
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Two years after 39 Vietnamese migrants died aboard a truck that travelled to Britain, Belgium on Wednesday opened the trial of 23 people suspected of involvement in the human-smuggling ring responsible.
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The proceedings, in a courtroom in the city of Bruges, follow convictions handed down in the UK in January to seven men, several for manslaughter. They were given prison sentences ranging from three years to 27 years.
In Vietnam, in September last year, four men were sent to prison in connection with the case. Their sentences ranged from two-and-a-half years to seven-and-a-half years.
The Bruges trial, expected to last two days, focuses on the fact that the truck left for Britain on October 22, 2019 from Anderlecht, a neighbourhood on Brussels’ western outskirts, where the gang allegedly had two safe houses to group migrants.
The bodies of the migrants, 31 men and eight women, aged 15 to 44 and all from Vietnam, were discovered the next day in Britain, when the container they were in was opened in Grays, an industrial area in Essex, just east of London.
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