Horrific news

jennifereccles travel to the camps in France and see for yourself then come back and tell me about the safety of the conditions
The poor souls were from Vietnam young people who had been promised jobs and money to start a new life and to help their families
A heart rending last text from a young lady has been found apologising to her mum and dad saying her trip overseas was a failure and that she thought she was dying as she couldn’t breathe Imagine that, imagine for just two secs jennifereccles the need to get out of poverty believing you are going to help your mum and Dad your siblings yourself to then know you have made the wrong decision and are going to die a horrible death frightened and alone Imagine the parents at home who waved her off with trepidation but believing she was starting a better life
Please open your heart and think thousands of Westerners change their country every year in hope of bettering their chances looking for a better way of life that is all these poor folks are doing trying to get a better life

Agreed grapefruit - it's a terrible use of a word, given the circumstances.

Lets call them “people” or “humans”.

Heartbreaking to hear see the lovely face of that young Vietnamese woman and put that together with her last moments in texts to her parents. Such an awful tragedy.

As far as I'm aware the police haven't named the lorry driver.

He's been 'named locally' as the media keep saying.

In other words, it's all over social media - probably because he has a public profile on Facebook, etc and once pictures of his fancy cab were in the press then his friends/neighbours identified him.

Please, in the spirit of common decency ,can we stop using the word " illegals".

I don't understand why they are saying the driver is being charged with murder. Just don't understand that.

This is huge and well organised and it's happening all the time. Minibuses wait to collect all the illegals as they arrive. They ditch their passports so we don't know where they come from and can't send them back. Heaven knows how many thousands of people have entered the country illegally. The only way to stop it is to check every single lorry and container.

A lot of these poor folk are charged £30,000 or more to get to the U.K. , which they obviously haven’t got so they are forced to work in whatever ghastly trade to pay off their “debt”. We have a Vietnamese nail bar near me which has had the same girls working there for a good few years and who have good English so I am hoping they are legitimate- but if not, why haven’t they been sussed before now? They have a little Buddhist shrine in the shop where they put fresh fruit and chocolate, which one girl explained to me was a gift for their departed ancestors.

I doubt the driver is guilty. He would not have opened the lorry if he knew what he was about to see.

The Govt have to start putting money into catching the gang leaders

growstuff

I totally agree with your post about Resources need plus European input to bus the organized crime gangs

Oh sorry I thought it was the police. All I know is that his face has been on most BBC news items over the past few days along with his name, which seemed wrong until more is known.

I really can't believe he knew people were dying, and just didn't care.
It all seems strange to me.

Jennifer Eccles - yes I agree, the identity of the lorry driver has been plastered all over the media and he may be totally innocent. His friends say he is, and it was reported he fainted when he saw the bodies, so it seems unlikely he is involved. It is completely wrong to identify him. I think there are many cases where the accused should not be identified until charges are made, otherwise they have trial by media which can completely ruin their life.

JenE was it the police? A couple of days ago I heard that it was people in NI who had named him. Someone on here will know about what the police policy on this is.

Is anyone else surprised at the police revealing the identity of the lorry driver?

Surely they can’t be certain yet that he was involved ?

I fully understand why he has been taken in for questioning and of course he may well be involved, but I would have thought his identity would have been kept from the media at least for the time being.

growstuff what do you think any of us as individuals can do, other than writing to our MPs?

Fair enough! I'm sure you don't think it solves very much.

growstuff I appreciate that by boycotting suspicious premises it will not stop trafficking, but I feel better knowing that I am not enabling them.

It's possible that one of the victims was a woman from Vietnam. Apparently her parents received a text message hours before the bodies were discovered.

People in countries such as China and Vietnam don't have the same access to the internet as we're used to, so it's difficult to get the message across just how dangerous attempts at illegal immigration are.

Unfortunately, boycotting nail bars and restaurants, etc won't stop the trafficking.

Isn't this horrendous ? I hate and detest slavery and exploitation and couldn't think of a worse crime carried out by the most evil and greedy monsters.

We've got no idea of the lives of the poor victims who endure this treatment. Their countries of origin should warn those that if they have ideas of a better life----forget it as it's a life of Hell especially if they come here.

How can a human treat a fellow human in this way ?

No, I've never used a nail bar either, GrannyG13 but we do use the nice, cheerful Polish car cleaners as they are the only ones around here.
It did get me wondering, though, when I read about the exploitation in other areas.

The government was warned about an increase in illegal immigration through Belgium last year:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/10/23/national-crime-agency-warned-zeebrugge-illegal-migrant-threat/

We use a local car cleaning company, English owned and run.

grapefruitpip Frontpage news in local paper, after the event.

Callistemon I would never use a Chinese or Vietnamese nail bar, inferior products and the likelihood that the girls are there not of their own will (there always seem to be at least one male in these places?)