bodyType

customContents

entityId

entityUuid

articlePageQuery

filter

article

articleBaseAdvertisingInfoArticle

articleListArticle

articleSeoArticle

helpersCheckIsPostiesArticle

hooksArticleAcknowledgementGateOverlayArticle

hooksTrackPageViewArticle

hooksContentInterestArticle

articleLinkingDataContent

articleSchemaContent

liveArticle

advertZone

sentiment

contentLock

topics

types

sections

moreOnThisArticles

urlAlias

commentCount

sponsorType

authorLocations

authors

paywallTypes

corrections

displaySlideShow

multimediaEmbed

printHeadline

seriesContainer

socialHeadline

headline

flag

firstTopic

glossary

flattenTypeIds

publishedDate

additionalInfoBoxes

images

image

relatedLinks

relatedNewsletters

__typename

createdDate

sponsor

factSheets

series

knowledgeQuestion

disableOffPlatformContent

published

updatedDate

summary

subHeadline

body

keywords

copyrighted

customTimezone

liveContents

Agence France-Presse

A Romanian man who was part of a people-smuggling gang responsible for the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the UK was jailed for nearly 13 years on Tuesday.
Marius Mihai Draghici, 50, received a sentence of 12 years and seven months, after pleading guilty last month to 39 counts of manslaughter and one of conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
The migrants, aged between 15 and 44, suffocated in scorching temperatures in an articulated trailer brought to Britain from Belgium in October 2019.
Their deaths in the sealed truck underlined the lengths many migrants are prepared to go to reach the UK, and the criminal gangs exploiting their desperation.
An international investigation into who was responsible has already seen 10 people jailed.
Sentencing Draghici at the Central Criminal Court, the Old Bailey, in central London, judge Neil Garnham said he was a “small but essential cog in the wheels of this criminal conspiracy”.
Man jailed over 2019 Vietnamese truck deaths in UK
“This was suffering of the most serious kind, and was suffered by 39 people – men, women and children,” he told him.
Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones earlier told Garnham the migrants’ final hours “must have entailed unimaginable suffering and anguish”.
One of the migrants called the emergency number in Vietnam on his mobile phone. Another sent a message saying he could not breathe.
The 28 men, eight women and three boys, were lured by the prospect of better-paid work in the UK, and paid between £10,000 and £13,000 (US$13,000 US$16,800) for the “VIP” route to the UK by lorry.
But during the trip from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to Purfleet-on-Thames in Essex, temperatures became sweltering.
Oxygen levels slumped as the temperature rose to 38.5 degrees Celsius (101 Fahrenheit) inside the unventilated trailer, making the air too toxic to breathe.

Draghici, who was extradited to the UK from Romania in late 2022, was recruited into the lucrative people-smuggling ring by fellow Romanian Gheorghe Nica.
The defendant had fled the country after the lorry driver Maurice Robinson, who picked up the trailer in Essex, rang the emergency services when he discovered the deaths.
Robinson was jailed for 13 years in January 2021. Another driver who towed the trailer to Zeebrugge, Eamonn Harrison, received an 18-year sentence.
Belgium trial starts over death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in UK truck
Nica was jailed for 27 years while another ringleader, Ronan Hughes, got 20 years.
Six others have been jailed in the UK and Belgium.
Draghici’s lawyer Gillian Jones said her client “carried out an operational role under direction”, did not plan or organise the conspiracy and had not benefited directly.
He fled the country because he was “terrified” and had been “shocked and horrified” by what happened. “He was too afraid to return,” she said.


French court convicts Vietnamese lorry tragedy suspects

Romanian people smuggler jailed in UK for deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in truck

Man hurls firebombs at UK immigration center, kills himself

UK Vietnamese truck deaths: People-smuggler jailed for nearly four years over 2019 deaths of 39 victims

UK truck deaths

UK forensics officers work on a lorry, found to be containing the dead bodies of 39 Vietnamese migrants, at an industrial park near London in October 2019. Photo: AFP

Coffins containing the bodies of the Vietnamese victims in Hanoi, Vietnam in 2019. File photo: EPA-EFE

At least 300 migrants missing at sea near Spain’s Canary Islands, aid group says

Migrants wait for assistance after disembarking from a rubber boat on Lanzarote island, the Canaries, Spain. Photo: EPA-EFE

Vietnamese truck deaths: two found guilty of manslaughter in UK

British forensics officers work on the truck, which was found to contain the bodies of 39 people, at an industrial estate east of London on October 23, 2019. Photo: AFP

14 arrested in Pakistan over Greece boat disaster, human trafficking network suspected

The battered fishing boat crammed with people that later capsized and sank off southern Greece. Photo: AP

Protesters hold a banner in front of the coastguard headquarters in the port of Piraeus, following the deadly shipwreck. Photo: AFP

British PM Rishi Sunak moves to curb migration, citing strain on UK services

An aerial view shows the RAF base in Wethersfield, England, where the British government is planning to house asylum seekers. Photo: AFP

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak. Photo: Pool via AP

UK Minister of State for Immigration Robert Jenrick. Photo: PA Wire / dpa

News

World

Europe

Asia

Southeast Asia

Smugger Marius Mihai Draghici jailed nearly 13 years in a London court on Tuesday
39 migrants from Vietnam suffocated in a truck trailer on their way to England in 2019


Marius Mihai Draghici was jailed for 12 years and 7 months over the deaths of 39 migrants who suffocated in a lorry brought to the UK from Belgium in 2019.


Britain

Vietnam

Human trafficking

Crime

Romanian people smuggler jailed in UK for deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in truck

Smugger Marius Mihai Draghici jailed nearly 13 years in a London court on Tuesday 39 migrants from Vietnam suffocated in a truck trailer on their way to England in 2019

Smugger Marius Mihai Draghici jailed nearly 13 years in a London court on Tuesday

39 migrants from Vietnam suffocated in a truck trailer on their way to England in 2019