UK: Probe expands into deaths of 39 people in truck in Essex

British police expanded an investigation into one of country's deadliest cases of human smuggling after 39 people were found dead in a refrigerated container truck near an English port. Essex police said victims were believed to be from China, though its embassy said ir nationalities were still being verified. Essex Police force said 31 men and eight women were found dead in truck early Wednesday at an industrial park in Grays, a town 25 miles (40 kilometers) east of London. A magistrate gave detectives ar 24 hours to question driver, a 25-year-old man from rrn Ireland who has been arrested on suspicion of attempted murder. He has t been charged, and police have t released his name. Police in rrn Ireland searched three properties re as detectives sought to piece toger how truck's cab, its container and victims came toger on such a deadly journey. Pippa Mills, deputy chief of Essex Police, said process of conducting post-mortem examinations and identifying victims would be "lengthy and complex." 

"This is an incredibly sensitive and high-profile investigation, and we are working swiftly to gar as full a picture as possible as to how se people lost ir lives," she said.

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Victims were from China: Police

Essex police said victims were believed to be from China. Its embassy in London said early Friday in a statement on its website that police were still verifying victims' identities and ir nationalities had t been confirmed. Chinese Consul General Tong Xuejun, who headed a team that traveled to site, urged police to find out truth as soon as possible. He spoke to Chinese state broadcaster CCTV after meeting with authorities. Police believe truck and container took separate journeys before ending up at industrial park. y say container traveled by ferry from Belgian port of Zeebrugge to Purfleet, England, where it arrived early Wednesday and was picked up by truck driver and driven few miles to Grays. truck cab, which is registered in Bulgaria to a company owned by an Irish woman, is believed to have traveled from rrn Ireland to Dublin, where it caught a ferry to Wales, n drove across Britain to pick up container. Global Trailer Rentals Ltd told Ireland's national broadcaster RTE trailer it owns was leased Oct. 15 in County Monaghan, in Ireland, at a rate of 275 euros ($299) per week. Dublin-based company said it will make data from its tracking system available to investigators.

company's directors told RTE it was "shell-shocked" at news and that it was "entirely unaware that trailer was to be used in manner in which it appears to have been." 

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Stricter migration controls lead smugglers to choose dangerous routes

Groups of migrants have repeatedly landed on English shores using small boats to make risky Channel crossing, and migrants are sometimes found in back of cars and trucks that disembark from massive ferries that link France and England.  But Wednesday's macabre find in an industrial park was a reminder that criminal gangs are still profiting from large-scale trafficking. trdy recalls deaths of 58 Chinese migrants who suffocated in a truck in Dover, England, in 2000 after a perilous, months-long journey from China's sourn Fujian province. y were found stowed with a cargo of tomatoes after a ferry ride from Zeebrugge, same Belgian port that featured in latest trdy. In February 2004, 21 Chinese migrants also from Fujian who were working as cockle-pickers in Britain drowned when y were caught by treacherous tides in Morecambe Bay in rthwest England. British Prime Minister Boris Johnson vowed in Parliament on Wednesday that people smugglers would be prosecuted to full extent of law. Britain, with its high demand for tourism, restaurant and agricultural workers, remains a very attractive destination for immigrants from all countries, even as U.K. is rethinking its immigration rules as it prepares to leave European Union. Nando Sigona, a professor of migration studies at University of Birmingham, said tougher migration controls born of populist anti-immigrant sentiment across Europe were closing less dangerous routes and sending smugglers toward riskier and untried paths.

" fact that all se people came from same country could hint to a more organized crime scenario," he told Associated Press.  "Usually, if it's an ad hoc arrangement at port, you would get a bit of a mix of nationalities." He said smugglers can earn more by packing as many people as possible into a ship or truck. "Death is a side effect," he said.

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Sigona, who has studied Chinese immigrants to U.K., said China's rising middle class has more access to multiple routes to come to West legally say, with student or tourist visas. This means West is w closer to public imagination in China and could prompt those with fewer resources to put mselves and ir families into debt in hopes of reaping similar rewards. U.K. authorities have warned for several years that people smugglers are turning to Dutch and Belgian ports because of increased security measures on busiest cross-Channel trade route between ports of Calais in France and Dover in England. Britain's National Crime ncy warned in 2016 that people smuggling using containers on ferries was " highest-priority organized immigration crime threat." 

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