Horrific news

Like flies to a carcass there will be criminals exploiting human misery.

There will be increasing demand for immigration into western Europe , North America, and Australia due to the climate change situation.

If they are, indeed, 'well educated young people' (and they can't be poor to afford £18,000) then why didn't they go down the normal route to come here?

A perfectly good system has been in place for many years for those wishing to come here, work, and make a contribution to our economy.

If they were educated, professional people, their application to come here to work may well have been successful.

I don't think anybody knows who they are Jennifer. BTW you're wrong about well-educated Chinese having a perfectly good system in place.

I'm just about to go and visit one of my students, whose parents are indeed well-educated Chinese and are in the UK on a Tier 1 (entrepreneurs) visa. They've had to go through all sorts of hoops, but one of them is that they have £200,000 of disposable income. China has an increasing number of well-educated citizens (millions of them in fact) and most of them don't have eligibility to come to any other country.

On the other hand, they could have been victims of trafficking, as suzie has suggested. Until they're identified, nobody knows and nobody has the means to be judgmental.

Unfortunately, you're right Alexa, which is why there will always be a need for robust laws and law enforcement agencies, which must be resourced properly.

Given the reality of life in China and the complete lack of freedom and democracy in any meaningful sense I wouldn’t judge any Chinese person for trying to escape. We used to positively welcome those fleeing from behind the Iron Curtain

Lets go with your supposition JE that they well educated , professional people who had sensibly saved up £18,000.

Why would they not just hop on a plane and come to the UK?

Why would they abandon everything and freeze to death in a lorry?

I suppose by your logic, they must have been nasty baddies, intent on moving up the council house waiting list and getting their hands on our miraculous benefits?

They didn't freeze grapefruitpip as the refrigeration was off. (I don't know why this didn't arouse suspicion. If they thought it was empty, why wasn't it weighed?)
They would've suffocated because of it being sealed.
As I said before, I know some of the emergency services who were at the scene.

OK thanks for that Pitt and terribly sorry for all involved.

There seems to be a lot of "misinformation" on social media. Even reports from the drivers family saying he has been released and is with them, that he found the bodies and called the police and that he has been released without charge.

None of which has been confirmed at this time on the Essex News or Essex Police website.

The trailer was apparently rented on the 15th of this month.

The BBC is reporting that Essex Police have been given extra time to question the driver. However, it is plausible that he contacted the ambulance service/police. The police were alerted very soon after the trailer docked, so maybe he opened it up and discovered the bodies.

Apparently, the driver exited his vehicle on the trading estate to check the paperwork which was in a folder inside one of the doors.
According to police, he fainted after seeing the piled up bodies and ringing 999, which was approx 35-40 minutes after picking up the trailer.
A judge has given police a further 24 hrs to question him so he is still in police custody.

Recent reports say that the refrigeration unit was on although it is usually off as it is commonly used for transporting biscuits and mushrooms.

One thing puzzling me was news yesterday that the driver had said "seeing what had been in the trailer and hearing their screams ?"------------has stayed with him.
Screams ? They were all dead.

There are a lot of illegal Chinese and other orientals working in Britain, the sex trade is obvious but any kind of Chinese business will employ agency workers, a fair proportion will be illegal.
It will be happening in your town, below the radar, everything is deniable the agency disappears, only for another to reappear. Call it a mafia like operation, 39 dead is bad for business it was not supposed to happen. The culprits will not be found, they are long gone and their loyalty code means that informants “disappear”.

If the driver is innocent, I feel very sorry for him. We wondered why the lorry was found in the middle of the night just 1/2 an hour from the port and wondered if it was the driver who found them. Perhaps something made him suspicious.

Mmm, the driver might have been suspicious that the trailer was empty and decided to have a look. It’s not usual to travel with empty trucks. On the other hand an industrial estate at night would be good place to unload “passengers”

This has got me thinking about a particular nail bar in Southend. I used it once because I couldn't get into my usual one.
I didn't like the place as the technicians didn't communicate with the customers at all!! This was very noticeable as my usual place is so friendly.
I mentioned this when I got into my usual one. She said the owner didn't want his staff talking to customers and then winked.
I know I should have thought more of it, but I am now and I'm going to phone someone.

Good for you petra. We need to be vigilant. It's going on right under our noses.

jennifereccles. I agree with you. It is not about racism but if the traffickers knew there was very little chance of getting away with it they would be more likely to stop. If they stop there wont be incidents like this,

There's almost zilch chance of catching the traffickers, apart from a few small players, unless there's an incredible amount of international co-operation, especially in the countries of origin.

Catching and punishing victims won't stop trafficking.

This article was written after the 2000 Dover tragedy:

kochan.co.uk/dover-58/

Well in our small commuter village (not big enough to be a town), in the last 8 months there have been multiple Home Office /HMRC raids on Chinese takeaways and Indian and Turkish restaurants along with the Chinese nail bar. The one last week resulted in 3 Turkish and an Iranian taken into custody.

So they'll get sent back to Turkey and Iran, to be replaced by more … even more business for the traffickers.

GG13, genuinely interested how you know.....wouldn't these things be covert?