Horrific news

jennifereccles have you the slightest clue how refugees fleeing from daily bombings are treated in Bulgaria Hungry and other countries along the way You haven’t a clue when you say they are safe there That is such a misguided statement
It’s a dreadful dreadful situation how can people be so unkind to displaced people I wish they could see first hand the kind of lives they are living or existing in All these people who are vocal about refugees should try walking in their shoes a day
I can’t express my disgust at the treatment and heartbreak for these people

Smileless
Most people being smuggled are told to destroy any documentation because without documentation where do countries deport them to.

Will they ever be able to identify them? Will there be relatives and friends who'll never know what became of their loved ones?

It's so awful.

I agree grapefruit

Have some decency. This is no the thread for politics and mentioning Remain or Leave.

Start another one called " How to solve people dying at the hands of traffickers."

This is the update from Essex Police.
Lorry left Zebrugge for Purfleet

Only yesterday I was reading an article on how eu countries rate on security. Belgium came bottom.

Exactly Grandad it’s clearly very complex what happened as it was planned to avoid detection.

suziewoozie Wed 23-Oct-19 16:45:25 thanks, I was trying to be subtle and not political. May concern is for what the future will hold in terms of international cooperation.

It is now being stated that the vehicle arrived into Britain from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge possibly on Saturday, with it's destination port being Perfleet.

The Bulgarian authorities are stating that the vehicle has not been into their country since 2017, though how they would know that is a mystery.

So, the surroundings of this terrible tragedy seem now to be very unclear.

Nonnie countries do work together on issues like this. Just like they do on international drug trafficking. For obvious reasons, this work and how it is carried out is not made public. And you’re right, of course he hasn’t been charged yet.

Has he been charged nina? I heard he had been held, not charged but I could be behind on this.

It does show that all countries should work together on this. In regards to the political comment, they want to come here because most of them learnt English at school,not that difficult to understand is it?

I think we all know that genuine asylum seekers should ask in the first EU country they get to but do they know that? If they did they could save themselves so much worry. I cannot think that anyone not seeking asylum would put themselves through such trauma.

I know at least one member of the emergency services dealing with this event personally and my heart goes out to everyone involved.

Yes it will probably take a while to establish the full facts.

I doubt very much he’s been charged with anything yet - he’s been arrested.

The fact the driver is being charged with murder rather than man slaughter to me indicates the police think he was aware.
I find it strange that truck travelled south from Hollyhead to Essex and was possibly intent on crossing the bridge into Kent. What was it's destination I wonder.
Tragic loss of lives.

Grandad1943 - I can't see anyone here making 'political capital' out of this tragedy, so why make such a comment? We are all agreed it is appalling and upsetting, but unless the reasons why and how these journeys happen are resolved they will continue and more people will die.

Im very sorry the people have died in such a terrible way. I think someone has been arrested, but it will take a long time to find out what really happened. RIP

I refuse to comment towards those who would wish to make political capital out of a tragedy such as this, but I only wonder at their mindset.

However, in regard to checks, many are now carried out in search of people who may be travelling in heavy goods trailers illegally.

Those checks consist of inserting a probe into the trailer that measures the oxygen and carbon dioxide level in the vehicle and compares that with the levels outside. If the readings inside the trailer are not comparable to that of the outside then it is probable that a person or persons are in the trailer.

The probe can be used through the same ports as that which is used to take a second temperature reading on sealed temperature controlled trailers and are issued to drivers in recent times so they can carry out such checks themselves.

My company has of recent been involved in the training of drivers and other staff in the use of such equipment, such is the safety and security threat to haulage industry and it's staff of recent

I don't suppose the nationality of the migrants is known yet, but what we do know is that the lorry's journey originated in Bulgaria, which of course is an EU country.

If they were escaping a war zone somewhere, they would have been safe there or, as Chestnut said, in any of the other European countries they would have passed through.

This point has been made many times before over the past years whenever migrants have died, either in boats or lorries trying to get into the UK.

Why the desperation to get here?

Truly horrific. I hope they arrest all those involved, not just the driver, and throw the book at them. However we also need to look at why people are prepared to take such risks. People are driven out of their own countries, how desperate would you need to be before taking such a chance?

Where do they find the 10k needed to fund the journey?

There are so many questions around this tragedy. If the intention was to unload the container then why didn't this happen? Why would you switch on the refrigeration when there are people inside? Then the million dollar question, why did they travel through so many safe countries to get here when they could have unloaded much sooner? Until that last question is answered and resolved these tragedies will continue.

We were once in Brindici port waiting for the ferry to Greece.
A lorry, just the other side of the wire to where we were parked was taken through the security scanner.

What happened next will stay with me forever.
We watched 26 Afgans fall ( literally) out of the lorry. They couldn't stand, they were being sick.

The Italian border guards were amazing taking care of them, giving them food and drink.

This is just an opinion but I doubt very much if those poor souls were picked up in Bulgaria. It would be very hard to hide that amount of illegal migrants in that country.
They have a very hostile attitude towards people from Iran/ Iraq etc.
More than likely it was turkey where the border coming into Bulgaria is very weak, especially with corruption.
The same with the border from Greece into Bulgaria.
Both of which I've crossed many times.

I'm certainly not making excuses for these border guards but if you knew what they earned you would understand how they can be bribed. In most cases they have no idea what they are in through. Very sad.