Lorry driver held after 39 bodies found in shipping container in Essex

London: A shipping container found with 39 bodies inside in Essex near London on Wednesday had just crossed the English Channel from Zeebrugge in Belgium, police say.

The container was picked up from a Thames port by a truck that had arrived from Northern Ireland, whose 25 year-old driver, identified as Mo Robinson, was in custody on suspicion of murder.

Truck driver Mo Robinson has been arrested as police investigate the deaths of 39 people. Credit:Facebook

The Essex discovery has led to calls for stricter security at the UK’s smaller ports, amid fears people smugglers have set up new routes to bypass checks at major entry points such as Dover. Experts warned it was the “tip of the iceberg” of human trafficking to the UK.

“This is an unimaginable tragedy and truly heartbreaking,” UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson said. “It is hard to put ourselves in the shoes of those emergency services as they were asked to open that container and to expose the appalling crime that had taken place.

“All such traders in human beings should be hunted down and brought to justice.”

Police were still working on Wednesday evening to identify the victims and their origin.

The truck was registered to a company in Varna on the east coast of Bulgaria – a country infamous for its people-smuggling gangs that charge thousands of euros to ferry migrants into and across Europe.

Police were called in the early hours of Wednesday morning, UK time, by ambulance officers who had attended an industrial park near the Thames, east of London.

All 39 occupants of the large shipping container, which reportedly included a refrigerated section, were found dead. They included 38 adults and one teenager.

Mom Robinson, 25, Credit:Facebook

Belfast Live reported the man’s partner’s “visibly shaken brother said they hadn’t heard from him and don’t know what’s going on”.

However Robinson was not believed to own the truck.

A spokesman for the Bulgarian foreign affairs ministry said the truck was registered in their country “under the name of a company owned by an Irish citizen” believed to be a woman.

Bulgaria’s Foreign Affairs Minister and Deputy Prime Minister Ekaterina Zharieva said she was “shocked by the terrifying news of the tragic incident in Essex” and said they “strongly condemn the human trafficking and smuggling”.

Bulgarian Prime Minister Boyko Borissov said the vehicle had not entered the country since 2017 and denied any connection to the country beyond its registration.

Bulgarian people smugglers have previously killed their "customers" in poorly ventilated trucks.

Police stand guard at the site where 39 bodies were discovered in a lorry.Credit:Getty Images

In 2018, four members of a people-smuggling gang – one Afghan and three Bulgarians – were jailed in Hungary for letting 71 people suffocate in a lorry abandoned on an Austrian freeway. Officials said the gang was part of a network of more than 15 vehicles moving refugees into Europe.

The UK’s National Crime Agency said Belgium has become a “major focus for people smugglers targeting the UK”.

“The most common clandestine ways for migrants to enter the UK are in lorries or other commercial vehicles transported by rail or ferry, in commercial shipping containers, or in small boats,” the NCA said. “Most methods of transport subject migrants to significant personal risk.

“The length of the UK's coastline and the sheer volume of passengers and freight entering the UK every year make identifying shipments containing illegal migrants a significant challenge."

The NCA identified 6993 potential people smuggling victims in 2018, an increase of more than a third on the year before, of whom 1151 were conclusively found to have been victims. They originated from 130 countries with Albania, Vietnam, Romania and Sudan among the most common nationalities.

Alp Mehmet, chair of Migration Watch UK, said people trafficking continued “not only because the traffickers make huge amounts of money from it but are also often able to get away with it”.

He warned “such tragedies will occur for so long as the UK fails to properly resource the border”.

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