human rights
After the death of 39 migrants in trucks: 19 suspects charged
The interior of the truck where 39 people died three and a half years ago. photo
© Essex Police/PA Media/dpa
According to the indictment, many migrants from Southeast Asia were smuggled to Europe for months – 39 of them suffocated in agony. Now the suspected people smugglers are on trial.
Three and a half years after the death of 39 migrants in a truck in Great Britain, the Paris prosecutor’s office has brought charges against 19 suspects. The men, who are between 21 and 58 years old today, are said to have been part of a large network and are being brought to justice for illegal smuggling and sometimes also for negligent killing, as the public prosecutor’s office confirmed to the German Press Agency last night. The accused are suspected of taking advantage of the misery of the emigrants and demanding exorbitant sums from them for their smuggling from Asia to Europe.
On October 23, 2019, 39 bodies, 31 men and eight women, were found in a refrigerated truck in a town in Essex, near London. A ship had previously brought the container from Belgium to England. The victims suffocated in the container came from Vietnam. The case drew international attention.
The accused of different nationalities now in Paris are accused of dividing up the workload to take care of the transport and the temporary accommodation of the victims in the greater Paris area. The investigating judge must now decide on a process. Investigators caught 13 of the suspects three years ago. They are said to have smuggled several dozen migrants from Southeast Asia every day for months.
In addition to France, prosecutions against suspected participants have also been initiated in Great Britain, Belgium and Vietnam. In London at the beginning of 2021, four members of the smuggling gang were sentenced to long prison terms. The two leaders received 27 and 20 years’ imprisonment, respectively, the truck driver 13 years and four months and a fourth member 18 years’ imprisonment.