Essex truck deaths: why are so many Chinese and Vietnamese being trafficked to the UK?

The discovery of 39 dead migrants in a refrigerated truck in Britain highlights a rise in modern slavery cases featuring Chinese and Vietnamese victims

Those figures are the tip of the iceberg. Many more are hidden in the shadows of illicit cannabis farms, nail bars and brothels

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Police at the scene where 39 bodies were discovered in a lorry container, in Essex, Britain. Photo: Reuters

Published: 2:35pm, 29 Oct 2019Updated: 9:22pm, 29 Oct 2019

The discovery of the frozen bodies of 39 trafficked migrants in a refrigerated truck in an industrial park on the Thames Estuary last week has shone the spotlight on a rise in the number of people being trafficked to the UK from China and Vietnam.

Vietnamese featured in more of the modern slavery cases referred to Britain’s National Crime Agency in 2018 than any other nationality bar British and Albanians, with 702 cases. At the same time, the number of Chinese victims soared by 50 per cent with 451 Chinese people passed on to the agency in 2018, including 17 children, up from 293 in 2017, putting China now in fourth place.

These figures are only the tip of the iceberg; those that come to the attention of the authorities.

Thousands more are hidden in the shadows of illicit cannabis farms, nail bars and brothels.

At least 25 of the eight women and 31 men who died having entered the UK through the small cargo port of Purfleet in Essex have now been identified as coming from Vietnam, many from the same village in the north of the country. The nationalities of the others have still not been ascertained.

The driver of the lorry carrying the refrigerated mass coffin, Maurice Robinson, 25, was charged on Monday with the manslaughter of the 39 victims as well as conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration over the past ten months. He was also charged with two counts of money laundering, including one count of concealing criminal property and one count of acquiring criminal property.

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