UK Police Arrest Man in Enquiry Over Vietnamese Truck Deaths

Reuters
By Reuters
November 22, 2019UK
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UK Police Arrest Man in Enquiry Over Vietnamese Truck Deaths
Police move the lorry container where bodies were discovered, in Grays, Essex, Britain on Oct. 23, 2019. (Hannah McKay/Reuters)

LONDON—British police arrested a 23-year old man from Northern Ireland on Friday as part of their enquiry into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people found in the back of a truck near London last month.

“He was arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration and remains in custody,” Essex Police said in a statement.

The man was arrested on a motorway in Beaconsfield, a town 25 miles west of London, the statement said.

The victims—31 males and eight women—were found in a truck container on an industrial estate in Grays, Essex, not far from docks on the River Thames, on Oct. 23.

UK migrant truck victims
A woman prays at an altar with an image of Pham Thi Tra My, a victim of 39 deaths in a truck container in UK, at her home in Ha Tinh province, Vietnam on Oct. 27, 2019. (Kham/Reuters)

The truck driver, who is also from Northern Ireland, has been charged with 39 counts of manslaughter, conspiracy to traffic people, and money laundering.

A second man has been charged with the same offences and British authorities are trying to extradite him from Dublin.

Police have also been looking for two brothers from Northern Ireland. Police in Vietnam have arrested 10 people there in connection with the deaths.

By Costas Pitas and William Schomberg

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