Horrific news

This type of tragedy will happen again, whether or not UK border security is tightened up and more checks are done. All that will happen is that the deaths occur elsewhere.

A focus on international intelligence investigating a whole range of criminal activities is needed.

petra Sun 27-Oct-19 11:50:34 Thank you. I thought you had information I didn't. However it wasn't necessary for you to tell me "You have to understand that bribery and corruption is part and parcel of these eastern block countries." I already knew that but I still condemn anyone who who do something so inhuman no matter what their personal circumstances are.

Weighing the trailers should be done at the start of their journey, then again at each border control.

EllanVannin Sun 27-Oct-19 12:30:47 sounds like a good idea but apparently we don't have the money to pay for it. Seems like that is the answer to most solutions.

I'm not sure how weighing containers would help. I'm not sure what this particular container was supposed to be carrying, but tracking showed that it travelled between Calais and Dunkirk, so was presumably loaded somewhere along the French/Belgian border. The immigrants were probably part of the original load, so weighing would have included them and there would have been no discrepancy.

EllanVannin Quote [ Weighing the trailers should be done at the start of their journey, then again at each border control.] End Quote.

EllanVannin, the problem would be in weighing all trailers passing through the ports is the sheer volume of traffic passing through the system.

Dover alone handles eight thousand HGV vehicles per day in both directions. Weighing every one would just not be possible.

Therefore, comparing the seals on the trailers against that which is on the delivery documents is all that can be carried out.

On occasion, the Oxegen and Carbon Dioxide levels are checked by way of the second temperature port on box traitors and that is often when the driver reports suspicions of persons in the trailer.

In general, only a small random selection is carried out each hour.

Like everyone with a heart, you can't get your head around why these people traffickers do these things. I watched a programme recently where police were looking for an excaped criminal at night from a helicopter, some sort of heat sensor picked them up, if they can do that from such a great height at night, why can't all lorries and trailers be scanned? I recently spent a long night on a hospital trolley in A and E, no checks were made on me. I can understand people wanting a new life here, but we have to stop this illegal and dangerous people trade. the message should go out to these villages where the people are fed tales of Utopia that is in fact hell.

Grandad My understanding is that these people didn't just slip into the trailer. They were the actual load. I suppose there was probably something else in there as well and I don't think it's been reported what was on the documents.

Peonyrose Apparently, heat sensors wouldn't have picked up body heat in a refrigerated trailer because it would have been too cold. In any case, the timing of the text sent by one of the victims suggests that they were dead before they reached the UK.

Extra border checks would just have meant that Border Force staff found the bodies rather than the driver.

I agree that messages need to get back to the home villages and towns and there needs to be a crackdown on the people who "sell" the escapes to alleged Utopia, but I think we're dreaming if we think it will ever stop completely.

It still makes me angry that Home Secretaries can stand in Parliament and announce supposed extra funding (which isn't) and crackdowns (which aren't) just to win votes.

If you want a long read, try this:

assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/631668/An-inspection-of-Border-Force-operations-at-east-coast-seaports.pdf

This is an extract about the problems Border Force have with search technology and equipment:

Border Force makes use of scanners to search suspicious freight, particularly sealed unaccompanied containers. Scanners are incorporated into a lorry and, when activated by the Border Force driver, the scanning mechanism swings out to move over the container.

Border Force officers told inspectors that they were concerned about scanner availability. The Humber scanner is shared between Hull and Immingham and inspectors witnessed an occasion when there was no-one available to drive it to where it was needed. In this case, a Category B target consisted of tyres packed so tightly into a soft-sided trailer that the bulging sides meant it was not safe to open. The officers present wanted to scan the trailer to determine if there were cavities that might conceal prohibited goods. The scanner was elsewhere but not in use, but there was no driver available to move it. The officers instead had to use other, less ideal, technologies and to run checks against the agent, delivery address and driver, before releasing the load.

Border Force officers who hold a driving licence that does not cover driving heavy goods vehicles, such as the scanner lorry, are unable to do so without specialist training.

Officers at one port said that they had lost the majority of their experienced scanner drivers to earlier voluntary exit schemes designed to achieve budget reductions. They had also lost officers with expertise in interpreting the images produced by a scanner. They said that while the basic skills could be taught through training courses, experience was important, particularly for interpreting images.

Border Force told inspectors that it keeps track of how many trained scanner lorry drivers and interpreters it has in each area, and that it had plans to train six more east coast officers to drive the scanner lorries.

Teresa May made huge Border cutbacks didn't she ?....and then had money to bribe the DUP.
Makes me sick.
They are either very stupid or plain evil.......(the Govt ministers who make the cutbacks)

Davidhs
The tractor which is the cab, was driven from Ireland to Essex. The container which was to be picked up by the tractor was transported on the ferry from France to the UK where it was picked up by the (now arrested and charged) cab tractor driver who apparently has been doing these trafficking runs for the past 10 months.

Like you Gabriella I did not want to think that this man whose partner is expecting twins was guilty of people trafficking.

My suspicions were aroused when it was said he had opened the container ‘to access paperwork’. I thought that strange - surely all necessary paperwork would be in his cab?

My thoughts are that in future any cab driver ought to be able to open the container to see exactly what he is transporting. I know (especially this day and age) I wouldn’t want to take any job on trust.

This 25y old Irishman has ruined many lives - the victims, his partner’s, his unborn twins, his own family - and the betting is this isn’t the first time he’s done such a run.

Wealth made on the back of misery.

I don’t know how (regardless of these deaths) he ever managed to sleep at night with all that on his conscience.

I also thought the driver was innocent. I am shocked. How can he sleep at night indeed?
I also thought a young man expecting twins would have a heart but I was wrong.

I really hope that the message goes out in Vietnam about this. They cannot trust people smugglers. They said to the families "your child is safe with us. Trains and cars.".....and that is not the truth.
The Govt over there I hope will tell them what horrors can happen.

A worrying part of this story is that the village is so poor they rely on illegal working in the UK for survival.

No-one there seemed to question the morality of that. What a world we live in when people are exploited by criminals and risk death to work and make a living.

Why aren't nail bars and car washes regulated? They are more visible than cannabis farms or brothels , as the public use them openly.

It is said that he'd been involved in trafficking runs since Dec 2018 Urmstongran
Unbelievable!
Why...knowing that a (hopefully now) loong jail sentence would be the price to pay, were he found to be complicit in this unspeakable crime?
My own view is that hidden cameras, capable of recording even in refrigerated conditions, should by law, be installed in every container and hooked up to whichever cab/ tractor is driving it at the time.
Cab cameras would show who was driving and times logged and be linked to the container code/number.
It cannot be beyond the wit of man to implement these actions.
It would mean that the driver would know immediately if anyone had breached the side curtains or doors via an app showing the interior if he was on a break at a truck stop.
Come on governments...get your collective acts together and put a stop to this madness and murder.

Pinkquartz-----that " young man " has cold eyes ! No empathy, just £ signs !! He probably thought he'd get away with this.

Why? perhaps ££££££ and I wonder if he has perhaps completed other, more successful, runs.

EllanVannin

yes you are right he does have cold eyes.
I noticed that but still wanted to believe he did not know.......because then you think anyone can do this.

Callistemon

even if he did other runs that worked the risk is always there.

Callistemon I suspect that there'd been success with their obnoxious trade as that young man's vehicle shouted money with all the bells and whistles it had. An expensive piece of transport.

EllanVannin
He didn't own the cab. According to the couple who were arrested then bailed, he rented it and as for other posters wondering if he'd done other runs, I clearly said that he'd been involved in doing these runs since Dec 2018 as per police statement.

If those other runs had been unsuccessful he'd be behind bars by now.

At least one if the persons 'found' was a young man with a degree. We cannot assume that they were all poor. Maybe by our standards but they look decently dressed, some had already travelled abroad.
Their parents may have pressured them...who knows. News outlets do report that they were asked to send money home to build larger houses for their families. They were not living in conditions such as street children in some other countries.

if of

How is their wealth of importance?