Essex lorry deaths: 39 bodies found in shipping container - BBC News

Our main story is the discovery of 39

bodies

in a

container

lorry

in Essex. The vehicle believed to have crossed the English Channel from Zebra in Belgium to the port of Tilbury in Essex was apparently driven by a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland. While he has been arrested on suspicion of murder, police say identifying the victims is the first priority, but they say it will likely be a long process. Well, we have full reports for you on this tragedy. My colleague Ben Brown is at Gray's in Essex with all the Latest for us this afternoon and in the last two or three minutes the police have moved the

lorry

involved from this industrial estate at Gray's in Essex to what they call a safe location.

They want to be able to take their time in that safe place. to try to identify the

bodies

that are still on board and remove them with dignity and respect they say that they really want to show dignity and respect for the victims of this unimaginable tragedy as the Prime Minister has called it, they also say that they are We still have one detained 25 year old man from Northern Ireland on suspicion of murder and the tractor part of this truck was registered in Northern Ireland. Let's get this report on the latest events from John Donnison. The grim discovery was made early this morning in this

container

. in the back of a truck at an industrial park in Gray's forensic officers have been working at the scene all day police say identifying the bodies will be a long and complicated operation officers now say the container was transported from Zubrowka in Belgium and docked at Purfleet in Essex last night, before being moved to the nearby Water Glade Industrial Park.

CCTV shows a truck carrying the container arriving at the park. It is not clear where the truck is coming from. Police arrived at the scene after they were alerted by the ambulance service at 1.40 this afternoon. A murder investigation was launched in the morning and the truck driver, a 25-year-old man from the north, was arrested on suspicion of murder and remains in police custody. At this stage we have not identified where the victims are from or their identities and we anticipate this could be a long process, we will continue to work alongside many other partner agencies to find out what led to these

deaths

in the House of Commons this afternoon the Minister of Home Affairs suggested it supported tougher sentences for people traffickers.

What we have basically seen through the actions of these traffickers is the worst of humanity and it is right that we use our law enforcement in all aspects of the law through existing legislation to ensure that justice is done and that the perpetrators are prosecuted. Local people have started leaving flowers at the site of the tragedy and are completely and absolutely shocked and devastated that this has happened here today, especially in this area. I mean my money, my mom and him work down the street, my dad works there, so this is the area that I, you know, drive through all the time, so stop that.

It is completely certain that this afternoon the industrial estate remains closed. The bodies are expected to be removed this afternoon to guarantee the dignity of the people who have unfortunately lost their lives. We will move the truck and trailer. Once that movement has occurred, we will remain here. to complete some examinations of the scene before we can allow all business operators to return to their premises. The police investigation will first have to establish where the victims came from and then who they paid to bring them. John Donneson BBC News here Well, as I mentioned earlier, police say they are still holding a 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland on suspicion of murder.

We now gather that he has been named locally in Northern Ireland as mo Robinson, mo Robinson, the 25 year old. arrested in Essex this morning on suspicion of murder. He has been identified locally in Northern Ireland as the driver of the lorry and remains in custody. He has been arrested by Essex Police in the early hours of this morning and we will also show you photos of the truck. They took him from here, away from the Water Blade industrial estate where he was parked and

found

overnight, and took him to safety. The police took him away shortly before five in the afternoon and the deputy chief of police was telling us. that the police really want to take their time in a place of dignity and respect to examine the bodies to try to identify the bodies that are still on board the 39 bodies, 38 of them adults and one of a teenager and, ultimately, also, of course, remove them. bodies too, so, who are these people?

Where are they from? Let's talk to Anthony Steen, president of the

found

ation against human trafficking, and that is the first question to these 39 people, victims of what the Prime Minister Minister called an unimaginable tragedy, where could they be from in your country? Look well, first of all, I agree with the Prime Minister, this is actually 9lu with the government and ninety days with bricks. What you are actually witnessing are things that happen probably every day, whether crossing the English Channel or in airports. or in this case terribly atrocious and sadly on the back of a truck these are people probably not victims of trafficking there are probably people who are asylum seekers fleeing persecution probably Afghanistan or Syria that's my hunch and they came through Bulgaria and they were handed over to Britain, I believe they were escaping atrocious tyranny in their countries and they desperately wanted to escape which is totally different than if they had been trafficked and tricked into situations that didn't actually happen here in Britain, they probably weren't. , were probably deliberate asylum seekers. trying to get to Britain in search of a better life but not necessarily deceived and that's quite a difference, it's hard to imagine who they probably are and why they were in a sealed unit but I've heard of other cases where Similar things happened, but fortunately the other people survived, this is a boring case and focuses attention on the desperation of people who abandon tyranny, hardship and violence, so what, in your opinion, should the authorities do? here in the UK and across Europe and around the world now what we are doing to try and stop this sort of thing, first of all we have to accept that we live in a global village, it is easy to escape and cross seas, cross space air and get to different countries, it's a new scenario and there's no way you're going to hate the movement of people away from hardship, horror and violence in a way that in the past they couldn't, now they can do it, so you are not going to change the first sponges, you are not going to change the second ones.

No matter how good your border force is and no matter how good your police management is or no matter how good your customs people are, there were going to be smugglers who would take people into this country and other countries where, in fact, they don't have right to come, so it's not What sentencing traffickers is about is preventing victims from getting to the position they were in in this case and it's not going to change easily. This emanates from countries that are living in poverty and people desperate to get out and are dealing with criminal people who can smuggle. they went in and they put them through the systems and in this case I think it's tragic that they failed and the Wiis exposed what happened if they hadn't died they would have just jumped out of the truck and disappeared, they probably would have disappeared into someone's house, maybe organize all the time, on the other hand, the smugglers may have only contracted to take them to Britain, which unfortunately they did, the question is, could the border force or the police or anyone else do anything else?

In my opinion, it is possible with a clearer vision. The border force and the larger border force we could intercept more people who should not be allowed to come here and of course after Brexit they will all be asylum seekers trying to get here because there will no longer be free borders so which is a question. There will be a change and we have to adapt to that change because more people are likely to come even though we have so-called secure borders, so overall I think there are many things that could be done, but would this have any effect on long term if these war ravaged countries wanted to come to a country that they believe has good human rights and that we will treat them humanely, I don't think we can to reduce or stop that it is part of human nature to want to get away from terrible and terrible situations and We in this country should be magnanimous enough to recognize that we cannot accept everyone, but we must accept people fleeing war-torn countries and perhaps more. welcoming and more hospitable and that may be something that needs to be considered, but I certainly think the police are doing their job and doing it well.

I think the border force may need a little extra help, but I don't think you would have discovered this because it was all sealed and that made it even more difficult, so the answer is that it's a tragedy. I'm not sure you're going to prevent other tragedies from happening. Antony Steen, thank you very much for your thoughts and The analysis really looked good at your anti-trafficking foundation president, just to say that Essex Police have said that they are working very hard to try to identify those 39 victims, but they warn that it may take some time and are appealing to any family. members who are worried about their family, loved ones or friends to contact them.

They are also trying to reconstruct the exact roots of the truck. They have now revised their opinions on where it came from. They believe it arrived in the UK. from Zeebrugge, straight to the port here in Essex and arrived here where we are just after midnight, well that's the latest from Gray's in Essex Hugh, back to you in the studio. Thank you very much Ben Ron for us at Gray's and just as a side note to What Ben was saying there, the harbor captain in Braga, that's the port where this truck originated, has been telling the BBC in the last few minutes that there are currently 4,000 trailers going back and forth between Zebra and the UK every four days. thousand each day and in a statement said that the summer was relatively calm, but in recent weeks we have encountered migrants every day in our searches and a unit of the UK border forces works at the port of Zubrowka in collaboration with the police Belgian maritime, but Just that message from the port captain in Braga, for example, that you know that there is a high volume of traffic and that they have noticed a marked increase in recent weeks in the number of migrants trying to pass.