39 dead in lorry container in Essex, October 2019

[andysays]

More info here

Essex lorry deaths: 39 bodies found in shipping container

A spokesman for the Bulgarian foreign affairs ministry confirmed the truck was registered in the country. "The Scania truck was registered in Varna (on the east coast) under the name of a company owned by an Irish citizen," he said. "Police said that it is highly unlikely that they are Bulgarians," he added.

Police have appealed for witnesses and anyone with information about the lorry's route to contact them. The force said it believed the tractor unit - or front part - of the lorry had come from Northern Ireland.

 

[emanymton]

I'm pretty sure that some containerised transport can be checked and sealed in one place, then shipped to its destination, potentially crossing various borders and switching from one mode of transport to another, until it arrives at its final destination where the seal is broken and it's checked again. No idea if this applies to this particular cargo, obviously.

I'm also curious about the idea that the police apparently know that the lorry originated in Bulgaria, but seem not to know how it got to Britain until it arrived in Holyhead. Surely it should be relatively quick and easy to check ferry lists to at least establish how it got from mainland Europe to Ireland and then on to Holyhead.

The number of containers that are inspected independently is less than 2%. But yes each one should be sealed with a numbered seal. The contianer has its own number as well.

 

[MickiQ]

It was a chiller trailer afaik, so could have been pallets upon pallets of boxes frozen fish.

How the fuck do you check that?

You don't if you're hired to pick up a trailer and the paperwork says frozen fish 99.9999% of the time its frozen fish, it's not the drivers job to do more than tow it.
Plod have changed their initial statement, the trailer came across to Essex from Zeebrugge and the tractor met it and towed it to Dover.
He might still be involved but there is a good chance he is an unsuspecting mark who can't finger anyone bar the person who hired him.
I get the impression that people smugglers aren't the kind of organisation who hand out customer satisfaction surveys so they won't care much that their passengers didn't make it or that some random driver can't explain how he ended up with 39 dead bodies in his truck.

 

[Geri]

A Facebook friend of mine almost died ina very similar way. He will be talking about it on Channel 4 news at 7.25 tonight.

 

[cupid_stunt]

Reports of the truck coming into the UK via Holyhead, whilst the trailer came in from Zeebrugge to Purfleet, does suggest the driver was just picking-up a trailer, and would know nothing about what was in it, apart from whatever was on the paperwork.

 

[planetgeli]

Guardian joining in publishing his name and picture. Fuckwits.

 

[brogdale]

Reported point of origin = about 100km from Turkish border in Bulgaria.

 

[cupid_stunt]

A lorry driver is believed to have picked up a refrigerated container in Essex just minutes before the bodies of 39 people were found inside. Mo Robinson, 25, had driven from his home in a small village near Portadown, Northern Ireland, over the weekend and collected the trailer from the port of Purfleet late last night.

Minutes later, his lorry was seen driving into the Waterglade Industrial Park in Thurrock, where ambulance crews and police were called and found 39 people dead in the back, including a teenager.

Robinson - whose partner back in Northern Ireland is said be expecting a baby - was arrested at the scene on suspicion of murder and is today at the centre of one Britain's biggest ever murder investigations.

Sorry for the source, but - Truck driver arrested after 39 found dead in refrigerated lorry | Daily Mail Online

 

[N_igma]

He came from a village 15 miles from my house. I’ve been told by people around that direction that he’ll never see the light of day again which suggests he knew what he was getting into. Then again could be just bullshit.

Bad act splashing the photo all over the news though so early, he’s fucked either way now not something that just disappears from your reputation even if you are completely innocent.

 

[emanymton]

Sorry for the source, but - Truck driver arrested after 39 found dead in refrigerated lorry | Daily Mail Online

So if that's true sounds like he just picked it up, realised something was wrong stopped and called the amblance/cops.

Could be the arrest is just to hold him while they make sure his story adds up. And he could end up being released without charge after having his name in all the papers. Of course it's the Mail so probably not even close to true.

 

[emanymton]

He came from a village 15 miles from my house. I’ve been told by people around that direction that he’ll never see the light of day again which suggests he knew what he was getting into. Then again could be just bullshit.

Bad act splashing the photo all over the news though so early, he’s fucked either way now not something that just disappears from your reputation even if you are completely innocent.

If the people saying they knew he knew what was going on, then they also knew and are cunts.

Edit - My grammar is crap but can't be arsed to change it.

 

[N_igma]

If the people saying they knew he knew what was going on, then they also knew and are cunts.

Edit - My grammar is crap but can't be arsed to change it.

Yeh I agree. It’s just what I’ve heard don’t take it for gospel but that’s what is going around at the moment here.

 

[cupid_stunt]

So if that's true sounds like he just picked it up, realised something was wrong stopped and called the amblance/cops.

Could be the arrest is just to hold him while they make sure his story adds up. And he could end up being released without charge after having his name in all the papers. Of course it's the Mail so probably not even close to true.

It was what the BBC TV news was reporting, hence I googled it, the Mail was the first link that came up with those details, second was the Irish Sun, google is now returning plenty more links to the story.

 

[emanymton]

Yeh I agree. It’s just what I’ve heard don’t take it for gospel but that’s what is going around at the moment here.

Proabbly just people taking shit and wanting to sound in the know as people do.

I hope so anyway. I'd prefer that.

 

[brogdale]

Sorry for the source, but - Truck driver arrested after 39 found dead in refrigerated lorry | Daily Mail Online

View attachment 187929

Arranged in Turkey, I'd imagine.

 

[emanymton]

It was what the BBC TV news was reporting, hence I googled it, the Mail was the first link that came up with those details, second was the Irish Sun, google is now returning plenty more links to the story.

We will have to wait and see.

 

[brogdale]

Meanwhile in Kent...alive, thankfully.

 

[emanymton]

Channel 4 postpones Smuggled broadcast after bodies found in lorry

Urg. Postponed now. But what shiy in the first place. Becuase people having to smuggle themselves into the country is just a laugh and all a bit of fun.

 

[cupid_stunt]

We will have to wait and see.

RTE is quoting the Gardai...

Gardaí are satisfied the 39 people found dead in a container in the UK this morning were not trafficked through the Republic of Ireland.

Detectives from the Garda National Immigration Bureau and officers from Special Crime Operations have been investigating the route the truck, and the container, took from Europe to Essex in England.

They have established that the container in which the bodies of 39 people were found went directly into the UK from Belgium.

The container arrived on a ferry from Zeebrugge to Purfleet at 12.30am this morning, and was driven away by the truck at 1.05am.

Worth reading the full report - People in container 'not trafficked through Ireland'

The Bulgarian Foreign Ministry says the truck is Irish-owned registered in Bulgaria by a company owned by an Irish woman.

It also says the last time the truck was in Bulgaria was in 2017 and it left the day after it was registered.

 

[emanymton]

RTE is quoting the Gardai...



Worth reading the full report - People in container 'not trafficked through Ireland'

I'm confused now. The truck or the container. If the people where in a container, then where the truck has been in meaningless. I might leave this now. I don't see much to be gained by speculation with limited info and it is distracting the thread from the main issue of 39 dead people whom we still seem yo know very little about.

 

[Bahnhof Strasse]

Copper on the radio a short while ago said the trailer would be moved to a more private location to be unloaded. She was fighting back tears. Must be a horrendous thing to see

 

[cupid_stunt]

I'm confused now. The truck or the container. If the people where in a container, then where the truck has been in meaningless. I might leave this now. I don't see much to be gained by speculation with limited info and it is distracting the thread from the main issue of 39 dead people whom we still seem yo know very little about.

If you read the reports, the truck [tractor unit] came from Ireland & picked-up a trailer [container] in Essex, that had come from Belgium.

The truck was connected to the trailer at the time of discovery, so clearly where both the truck & trailer came from, and what is behind them being connected needs unearthing.

 

[planetgeli]

He’s driven the trailer connected to his truck for all of about 15 minutes, straight to an industrial estate, certainly one of the closest industrial estates to the point of entry (Purfleet). Entirely possible that’s a legitimate drop off point for legitimate goods. But also raises obvious suspicions of being a point of immediate drop off for people trafficking.

Certainly doesn’t make the driver guilty.

And the ambulance crews were called immediately. It was they who called the police. All this happened within 35 minutes of the trailer leaving Purfleet.

 

[andysays]

He’s driven the trailer connected to his truck for all of about 15 minutes, straight to an industrial estate, certainly one of the closest industrial estates to the point of entry (Purfleet). Entirely possible that’s a legitimate drop off point for legitimate goods. But also raises obvious suspicions of being a point of immediate drop off for people trafficking.

Certainly doesn’t make the driver guilty.

And the ambulance crews were called immediately. It was they who called the police. All this happened within 35 minutes of the trailer leaving Purfleet.

The most likely explanation seems to be that the driver somehow discovered the bodies and called for the ambulance himself

 

[planetgeli]

The most likely explanation seems to be that the driver somehow discovered the bodies and called for the ambulance himself

Yes.

 

[baldrick]

The most likely explanation seems to be that the driver somehow discovered the bodies and called for the ambulance himself

Yes. I really hope he didn't already know there were people in there.

 

[planetgeli]

Hmmm. Pictures show the lorry stopped in a rather odd place on the industrial estate. Not in a (un)loading bay by a warehouse. Just in what looks like an approach road in the middle of the estate, by the side of the road.

Lorry driver held as 39 found dead in trailer

Enough speculation. Human trafficking is about as vile as it gets. I'm out.

 

[Manter]

Truck came from Bulgaria but nothing on their national identity. Sounds like it won't be anytime soon either.

Horrid

I can’t believe they will have been in the truck all the way from Bulgaria. Too difficult, air, border crossings, waste.... Plenty of loading points Zeebruge way

 

[Manter]

Only way I can link to Ahmad’s section not the whole report.

Geri I am now trying to figure out who you are as we must know one another IRL

 

[Mation]

Fuck. This is every kind of awful.