[noemon]

Thirty-nine people, including a teenager, have been found dead inside a lorry container at an industrial park in Essex.

Police were called by the ambulance service after the discovery at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays at 1.40am.

All 39 people were pronounced dead at the scene and the lorry driver, a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Police activity at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, Essex, after 39 bodies were found inside a lorry container on the industrial estate. PA Photo. Picture date: Wednesday October 23, 2019. Early indications suggest there 38 are adults and one teenager, police said. The lorry is from Bulgaria and entered the country at Holyhead, North Wales, one of the main port for ferries from Ireland.

The vehicle is believed to have come from Bulgaria and entered the UK at Holyhead in north Wales on Saturday.

Essex Police Chief Superintendent Andrew Mariner said: "This is a tragic incident where a large number of people have lost their lives. Our enquiries are ongoing to establish what has happened.

"We are in the process of identifying the victims, however I anticipate that this could be a lengthy process.

"We believe the lorry is from Bulgaria and entered the country at Holyhead on Saturday 19 October and we are working closely with our partners to investigate. We have arrested the lorry driver in connection with the incident who remains in police custody as our enquiries continue."

Police are appealing for anyone with information to get in touch with them, and have put a cordon in place and access to and from the industrial park is closed.

Mr Mariner added: "I appreciate this cordon is going to disrupt the activity of local businesses in the area and we will work to ensure that disruption is kept as short as possible. We are working with Thurrock Council to mitigate against any impact our investigation scene will have locally."

Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills told reporters outside Grays police station that the incident was an "absolute tragedy and a very sad day for Essex Police and the community".

National Crime Agency officers have been deployed to assist Essex Police with the investigation, and three Red Cross emergency support vehicles were also seen heading into the site.

Sky News understands that police in Northern Ireland are also assisting with the investigation, with it thought that the lorry could have come into the UK from Dublin.

The East of England Ambulance Service said it had sent five ambulances, hazardous area response teams and a car from the Essex and Herts Air Ambulance "in the early hours of the morning".

"Unfortunately 39 people had died prior to our arrival," a spokesman said.

Ms Mills added that it would be a "lengthy process" to identify the bodies, and apologised for the disruption the investigation would cause businesses at the industrial park.

Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills reads statement on behalf of Essex Police after discovery of 39 dead in a lorry

Essex Police: 'This is an absolute tragedy'
The industrial park is made up of courier and logistics companies, and is a short drive from the Dartford Crossing, which links Essex with Kent.

Paige Wade was driving past on the way home from work at around 4.15am and saw police tape cordoning off an entrance to the site in Eastern Avenue.

She said: "I knew it was serious because of how many police cars and ambulances were there, but the police had parked their cars across the whole access of the road so you couldn't see anything.

"There's always lorries around there as they park up there for the night."

Glen Freeland said staff at his nearby GSF Car Parts shop were unable to get into work on Wednesday morning because of the police cordon.

He added: "All we know is they found the bodies in the back of a lorry.

"It was a bit of a shock but we're not 100% sure of what's happened."

The journey from Bulgaria to the UK via Holyhead has been described as an "unorthodox route" and it is thought the lorry would have come in from Dublin.

Seamus Leheny, Northern Ireland policy manager for the Freight Transport Association (FTA), said: "There is a direct route to Holyhead from Dublin.

"If the lorry came from Bulgaria, getting into Britain via Holyhead is an unorthodox route.

"People have been saying that security and checks have been increased at places like Dover and Calais, so it might be seen as an easier way to get in by going from Cherbourg or Roscoff, over to Rosslare, then up the road to Dublin.

"It's a long way around and it'll add an extra day to the journey."

Irish premier Leo Varadkar said any necessary investigations would be undertaken if it was established the lorry had passed through Ireland.

He added: "It is a real terrible and human tragedy, and we will carry out any investigations that are necessary if it's established that the truck did pass through Ireland."

File photo dated 25/11/2010 of the entrance to the Port of Holyhead, in North Wales, which is thought to have been used by a lorry carrying a container in which 39 bodies have been found in Grays, Essex. PA Photo. Issue date: Wednesday October 23, 2019. See PA story POLICE Container. Photo credit should read: David Jones/PA Wire

The lorry is believed to have entered the UK at Holyhead in north Wales
The Bulgarian foreign affairs ministry has said it had "no information" about the incident prior to UK media reports, but confirmed the lorry was registered in Bulgaria by a company owned by an Irish citizen.

It told Bulgarian newspaper Dnevnik: "Our embassy is in contact with local authorities and is reviewing the case."

Prime Minister Boris Johnson tweeted: "I'm appalled by this tragic incident in Essex. I am receiving regular updates from the Home Office & will work closely with Essex Police as we establish exactly what has happened.

"My thoughts are with all those who lost their lives & their loved ones."

He later opened PMQs by describing the incident as an "unimaginable tragedy", and told MPs those involved in people trafficking should be "hunted down and brought to justice".

@BorisJohnson
I’m appalled by this tragic incident in Essex. I am receiving regular updates and the Home Office will work closely with Essex Police as we establish exactly what has happened. My thoughts are with all those who lost their lives & their loved ones.

Conservative and Labour leaders are shocked by news that 39 bodies were discovered in a lorry in Essex

Johnson and Corbyn shocked by lorry deaths
Home Secretary Priti Patel said she was "shocked and saddened" by the news.

Ms Patel is MP for Witham, which is in Essex.

She tweeted: "Shocked & saddened by this utterly tragic incident in Grays. Essex Police has arrested an individual and we must give them the space to conduct their investigations."

In a further statement, the home secretary said police were working with Home Office immigration officials "to establish how this horrific event came to happen".

The home secretary later gave a statement in the Commons, describing the incident as a "tragic loss of life".

She told shadow home secretary Diane Abbott the UK would continue to work with EU and international partners to combat people smuggling.

Shocked & saddened by this utterly tragic incident in Grays. Essex Police has arrested an individual and we must give them the space to conduct their investigations.

Jackie Doyle-Price, the local Conservative MP for Thurrock, tweeted: "Sickening news of 39 people found dead in a container in Grays. People trafficking is a vile and dangerous business.

"This is a big investigation for Essex Police. Let's hope they bring these murderers to justice."

The Road Haulauge Association has said it is "shocked" by the discovery, which echoes an incident in 2000 when the bodies of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants were found in a sealed container at Dover port.

An inquest heard how the 58 immigrants banged frantically on the inside as their air supply ran out.

The Dutch driver of the lorry, Perry Wacker, was jailed for 14 years in April 2001 for the manslaughter of the immigrants, who had paid a criminal gang thousands to be smuggled into the UK.

Seven other men were later jailed by a Dutch court for their role in the operation.


Sky News

[Tainari88]

That is awful @noemon. I got really angry once with a co-worker of mine. She called me and wanted me to go pick up her five year old little son from an immigration detention center. Her son was abandoned by some smugglers in the middle of a desert in Arizona in a hot car. He was alone. The border patrol had picked him up and saved his life. They contacted his Aunt who had temporary residency and she contacted the boy's mother (my co-worker). She wanted me to go and pick him up and bring him to her in another state but she had no papers Noemon and was afraid of being detained.

I was so angry I could not see straight. I really screamed at her and she started crying and so on....I told her in Spanish (she was Honduran), "What the HELL were you thinking? Placing your son in the hands of those low life pieces of trash human traffickers!? You would entrust your son to some people that are not even family and without any real protection? They could have sold him into child pornography or killed him and harvested his organs or just did what they cowards did...abandon him in some hot desert to die crying for his mother and dying of thirst all alone?! For what?? Some fucked up American Bullshit dream that doesn't happen for you here? You can barely feed yourself. You better get it together....when things get that bad? You save your money and you go home and live with what you can do over there as a family. You don't risk your son's life over some bullshit dream that is not worth it. The American Dream is bullshit. Don't risk your kid for some crap lies. If I were you I save my money and leave him in Honduras and if you got to run across the border you are with him all the time and you better be with trusted people and a gun or some form of protection from those rapists and murderers and low lives smuggling human beings like cattle...they are PIGS!! Don't trust them."

I called her some choice words. She got her son. Never called me again. I sent my mother to pick him up. I don't understand people willing to risk a child's life over BULLSHIT. I will never understand that Noemon.

[AFAIK]

Apparently some of them texted their parents to tell them they were dying. Reminds me of the cockle pickers in Moorecombe bay who called their families when the tide cut them off.

[Sivad]

Well I hope this doesn't sour us on human trafficking, it's a tragedy but it's important to remember that most survive the journey and without human trafficking liberals wouldn't have all the cheap tacos and affordable handjobs they rely on to maintain the lifestyle they're accustomed to.

[Verv]

The laws in place encourage risky behavior that results in deaths via human smuggling.

It's quite a sad reality -- and we could fight it through e-verification processes that would be relatively easy to implement.

But I guess if I was a leftist, I would just stay that these 39 deaths are just the price we have to pay to keep the migrants coming since we aren't quite ready to abolish the borders.

[Godstud]

@Verv You kind of contradicted yourself. The vast majority of "leftists", are for responsible border control, and for enforcement of laws already on the books, when it comes to illegal immigrants.

The laws are already in place, but if enforced would immediately hurt the corporations hiring the cheap labour.

Leftists don't want open borders, and rightists don't want e-verification.

Why would you think anyone wants dead people as a "price we have to pay"? That's simply fucked up, and not what anyone, aside from yourself, has said.

[ThirdTerm]

Pham Thi Tra My paid £30,000 to be smuggled to Britain from her home in one of Vietnam’s poorest provinces. There are a number of Vietnamese nationals among the victims. £30,000 is close to $39,000 and you can probably buy a moderate house with that amount of money in Vietnam. Or she could have opted to study in the UK for a year or two, which I did in my 30s. This means that these Chinese illegals were from moderately wealthy families and young lives were wasted by their rich parents.

Ha Tinh, Vietnam (CNN)Nguyen Thi Phong and Pham Van Thin live in a small house in Nghen, a town in Vietnam's Ha Tinh province. It has a corrugated metal roof, propped up on loose bricks, and a Vietnamese flag flies outside.

The family doesn't have much -- they make about $400 a month between them -- but they say they managed to scrape together the money to pay for their daughter, Pham Thi Tra My, to travel to the UK, where they hoped she would have a chance at a better life.
That journey ended in tragedy. Pham Thi Tra My is believed to be among the 39 people found dead in a refrigerated lorry trailer at an industrial park in Grays, Essex, on Wednesday.

She texted her parents late on Tuesday night, UK time, when the trailer was in transit to the English port of Purfleet, according to Maritime tables seen by CNN.

"I'm sorry Dad and Mom. The way I went overseas was not successful," the 26-year-old wrote. "Mom, I love Dad and you so much. I'm dying because I can't breathe. Nghen, Can Loc, Ha Tinh, Vietnam. Mom, I am so sorry, Mom."

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/10/26/asia ... index.html

[Godstud]

Tragic, but many right-wingers see this as an opportunity to fling poo, unfortunately.

[Sivad]

Pham Thi Tra My paid £30,000 to be smuggled to Britain from her home in one of Vietnam’s poorest provinces. There are a number of Vietnamese nationals among the victims. £30,000 is close to $39,000 and you can probably buy a moderate house with that amount of money in Vietnam. Or she could have opted to study in the UK for a year or two, which I did in my 30s. This means that these Chinese illegals were from moderately wealthy families and young lives were wasted by their rich parents.

If it was paid upfront it was probably the whole extended family kicking in their collective life savings. Otherwise it's an indentured servitude deal enforced by organized crime syndicates.

[Verv]

You know what, you are right, @Godstud , that there are many people on the left that do want a very rational program in place and enforcement of the laws. It is actually quite weird that the default has been one that is extreme in which almost no laws are consistently enforced. This is somethign that boggles the mind.

+++

$39,000 USD!

The average starting salary for a public school teacher in the US is $38,000.[1] This is only slightly less than what the average school teacher in Oklahoma makes yearly, and it would likely take even a frugal single teacher in Oklahoma several years to save up such a sum.

If we are talking about in-state tuition, this would pay for a 4 year degree in most state schools in the US.

In South Korea, the average University is probably around $6,000 USD a year. I rented a room that cost about $280 a month. You can find cheaper. Let's say we go 280 a month for 12 months for 4 years = $13,000 USD. Uni cost = $24,000 USD. She would have roughly $3,000 leftover for miscallaneous expenses. Working part time at a restaurant during winter & summer break would have enabled her to never worry about anything with that amount...

And there are literally hundreds of thousands of foreign Asian students in South Korea doing exactly this right now, only thing is is that almost none of them show up with 40 million won.

She spent the money on illegally infiltrating another country. She coould have graduated here & had a pathway to citizenship if she had done even a remotely halfway decent job earnign her degree.

[1] The Balance


EDIT: Having said that, @Sivad is perhaps right.

But this was not a good move.

[ness31]

I found the story all a bit odd tbh. But I’ve not been successful in finding anyone who agrees with me

[Godstud]

It was, unfortunately, a terrible move, on her part. I think that @Sivad was correct, too.

@ness31 It is odd. I'll give it that much.

[ness31]

It just didn’t seem like a classic people smuggling story. But I was assured the refrigerated trick is an old method, as they are checked less and help to avoid heat sensors.

The driver of the lorry just looks like a kid And who stopped to raise the alarm anyway?

[foxdemon]

Tragic, but many right-wingers see this as an opportunity to fling poo, unfortunately.

It is not just right wingers trying to fling poo. The Chinese government claims this terrible incident is the UK government’s fault. How exactly? Meanwhile the progressives are using it to claim no borders would solve the problem. Which I suppose it would, as long as the progressives don’t mind losing the welfare state and public health.


Actually, it is likely the Triads were involved. These people, had they survived, would have ended up as forced labour. The ladies would likely have been forced into prostitution. The responsible thing would be for Asian governments to educate people about the people smuggling industry so that young people would not get tricked into these rackets. But instead, the CCP is just using it as propaganda because of alleged UK support for the HK protests.

[Tainari88]

Pham Thi Tra My paid £30,000 to be smuggled to Britain from her home in one of Vietnam’s poorest provinces. There are a number of Vietnamese nationals among the victims. £30,000 is close to $39,000 and you can probably buy a moderate house with that amount of money in Vietnam. Or she could have opted to study in the UK for a year or two, which I did in my 30s. This means that these Chinese illegals were from moderately wealthy families and young lives were wasted by their rich parents.

What a beautiful girl.

It is so sad.

That is why I always tell people who live in poor nations....I live in Mexico currently and there are a lot of poor people here, and many other nationalities too, who all talk about going up North to make more money. I tell them--you are not going to make more money. You are most probably going to stay in the same conditions and social and economic status or go down worse in that....and if you don't speak English, have a great formal education and some modern economy from the first world skills? You won't be getting jobs that are stable or that pay enough to be worth the risk of entering a nation's borders without authorization. It is not worth it. Forget about being some middle class American buying shit in a mall. Concentrate on organizing what is wrong in your own nation and fighting to improve the quality of life of your own country. Work hard, organize yourself, read, write, and speak and contribute to your native society. Do the work. Here. In Mexico. Don't look for an easy solution thinking the USA will bring you prosperity...that country has its own people struggling to pay the rent and a bunch of homeless people, you might wind up the same. Do you have a roof in Mexico? Yes? Then forget about the American Dream bullshit. Stay here and fight. Fight for a better nation where you are at.

That journey is for fools now. They are surprised that I say that. But it is the truth.

[Tainari88]

It was, unfortunately, a terrible move, on her part. I think that @Sivad was correct, too.

@ness31 It is odd. I'll give it that much.

Godstud, the stupid propaganda about the USA and the UK and Australia and etc having enormous easy money making opportunities is STUPID. That shit needs to stop. It does.

People think the streets are paved with gold in the USA. One woman told me here,---Oh, you lived in the states? In a mansion? People got mansions over there."

No they don't. Lol. Foolish Hollywood shit. Life is not about that in the USA. Most people got to work two jobs to pay their bills in the states....but the people in the Third World think it is easy to live in the states. Lack of real information.

[Tainari88]

You know what, you are right, @Godstud , that there are many people on the left that do want a very rational program in place and enforcement of the laws. It is actually quite weird that the default has been one that is extreme in which almost no laws are consistently enforced. This is somethign that boggles the mind.

+++

$39,000 USD!

The average starting salary for a public school teacher in the US is $38,000.[1] This is only slightly less than what the average school teacher in Oklahoma makes yearly, and it would likely take even a frugal single teacher in Oklahoma several years to save up such a sum.

If we are talking about in-state tuition, this would pay for a 4 year degree in most state schools in the US.

In South Korea, the average University is probably around $6,000 USD a year. I rented a room that cost about $280 a month. You can find cheaper. Let's say we go 280 a month for 12 months for 4 years = $13,000 USD. Uni cost = $24,000 USD. She would have roughly $3,000 leftover for miscallaneous expenses. Working part time at a restaurant during winter & summer break would have enabled her to never worry about anything with that amount...

And there are literally hundreds of thousands of foreign Asian students in South Korea doing exactly this right now, only thing is is that almost none of them show up with 40 million won.

She spent the money on illegally infiltrating another country. She coould have graduated here & had a pathway to citizenship if she had done even a remotely halfway decent job earnign her degree.

[1] The Balance


EDIT: Having said that, @Sivad is perhaps right.

But this was not a good move.

Verv, that is why being a nationalist is no solution. The reason these people MOVE the hell out and risk life and limb is that the money they make in their home nations is abysmal. You got to do the international workers and international long term plan so people can stay the hell PUT in their own economies and their own nations. Some nations being rich and having jobs and others being poor and can't even feed themselves is a recipe for ILLEGAL IMMIGRATION.

Thinking that only look out for ME and my country and fuck the rest of the world? That is stupid in the extreme.

Human beings are not going to stay put in a country where they can't get an education, they don't have job prospects, they can't get ahead and they can't work and they feel trapped by crime, lack of health care, lack of housing and lack of everything. It is forcing them to leave.

If you think being a selfish rah-rah nationalist with racist policies is going to solve the issues on a global scale? You are wrong. Period.

Capitalism loves cheap labor. They will pervert the laws of the USA and of every other nation for cheap exploitation. You can keep thinking it is the greatest system the world has ever known but it not into nationalistic America I love you....tis of thee. They DON'T GIVE A SHIT. They will be out there getting a profit. If it means like Sivad talks about cheap tacos and so on? Then they will do it.

They are internationalists. The solution has to be internationalist. Nationalism is LIMITED in its ability to solve that issue.

It should be obvious to many that is what the problem is. But somehow people are so blinded by American or British or whatever exceptionalism that they fail to realize we aint living in isolated pockets of human life anymore. People MOVE and information moves and thinking you can force the poor nations to never have poor people fleeing? A pipe dream. BE REALISTIC. Help the ones that are desperate so they stay put. Talking shit and being selfish doesn't solve any problems.

[Crantag]

Godstud, the stupid propaganda about the USA and the UK and Australia and etc having enormous easy money making opportunities is STUPID. That shit needs to stop. It does.

People think the streets are paved with gold in the USA. One woman told me here,---Oh, you lived in the states? In a mansion? People got mansions over there."

No they don't. Lol. Foolish Hollywood shit. Life is not about that in the USA. Most people got to work two jobs to pay their bills in the states....but the people in the Third World think it is easy to live in the states. Lack of real information.

I hear that shit all the time. I'd probably need 500 hands to count how many times people have told me about what the know about the US... from watching movies.

People say that shit all the time, about how they think all 'Westerners' are rich.

But it's sort of a trap. People form flowing stereotypes all the time.

For example, I remember growing up having nothing but positive images of Thailand, and it somehow insulated me from realizing the levels of poverty there. I could say the same for India, and even China. Romanticism.

[Godstud]

For example, I remember growing up having nothing but positive images of Thailand, and it somehow insulated me from realizing the levels of poverty there. I could say the same for India, and even China. Romanticism.

Just an update, then... Poverty levels in Thailand(7.9% in 2017) are lower than in the USA(12.3% in 2017). There is still poverty, of course, but infrastructure, and government programs, have actually lowered poverty significantly. Romanticize all you want, there aren't people starving here. Your positive image is probably a lot more accurate now, than it would have been 25 years ago, when poverty rates were double what they are now.

Thailand is definitely not the same as the countries surrounding it, however, which are significantly poorer(aside from Malaysia).

Yes, there is a problem with stereotypes, but the USA has fostered the one of the American Dream, and has never stopped.

[Rancid]

Yes, there is a problem with stereotypes, but the USA has fostered the one of the American Dream, and has never stopped.

What?

The American Dream is totally achievable*

* if you have 1 million in seed money to start with.