While he is not sure who called him, Gia said it was a Vietnamese man and, presumably, someone affiliated with the traffickers who had loaded his son onto a truck for their ill-fated journey across the English Channel.

“They called me and said they did not expect it, but it was an unlucky thing, and asked for my sympathy,” he added.

Halfway across the world from where Essex police are conducting the county’s largest-ever murder investigation in the aftermath of the truck’s discovery, Vietnamese families like Gia’s are struggling to find answers as to how their loved ones met their ends amid their perilous, illegal journeys westward.

The bodies were found in a truck container about 32km east of central London, and British police are still trying to establish the identity of victims who in many cases lacked identity documents.

Beijing called for a speedy investigation into the matter after the victims were initially thought to have been Chinese nationals.

Hua insisted people in China were experiencing an “unprecedented level” of happiness and satisfaction. “All 1.4 billion Chinese are proud of our country’s great achievements. If you look around, you’ll know that China is not the country with serious illegal immigration issues,” she said.

Driver charged over 39 deaths, police ask Vietnamese to help identify victims

On Sunday, police in Vietnam took hair and blood samples to get DNA from the relatives of people feared to be among the 39 victims, including Gia.

But even in the absence of official word, communities in Vietnam are already counting their missing.

Bui Huy Cuong, deputy chairman of the Can Loc District People’s Committee in Ha Tinh province, said eight people in his district were missing and were likely on board the truck.

Cuong said that based on their investigation, two other trucks of migrants left on the same day for Britain. “These families are still expecting their children might be in the two other trucks,” he said.

But Gia said he has lost all hope for his son Luong: “I am sure he is dead.”

Hanoi orders probe as majority of Essex truck death victims likely from Vietnam

By that point, his family was US$19,000 in debt from his travels, with Luong sending back no more than US$1,000 a month. They still have around US$5,000 left to pay.

Two days before his son apparently died, Gia got a call from Luong explaining that he was going to Paris to join a group of migrants headed to Britain.

“I said ‘No, don’t go anywhere, just stay there’, but he told me that he would go by a safe way,” Gia said.

The unspecified “safe way” cost £11,000 (US$14,100) while the truck route that Luong actually did take cost around £3,500, Gia added.

“He told me he did not know what kind of work he would do in Britain, but would go there first,” he said. Three days later, Gia received the informal death notification from the suspected traffickers.

“Our family is very poor, and faces a lot of difficulties,” he explained.

While My’s parents were able to send her to Japan on a work visa, she left after three years because she was unsatisfied with the approximately US$800 she was able to save each month. She decided to take out a US$40,800 debt to illegally travel to Britain.

She left Vietnam on October 4, headed to China – where she possibly acquired a Chinese passport from the traffickers – before proceeding to France.

In the days after she left, Cuong said, My would send regular updates to her mother tracking her progress.

Then, on Wednesday, their mother received the final text. “I’m sorry Mum. My path abroad has not succeeded. Mum, I love you so much. I’m dying because I can’t breathe.”

Vietnamese woman travelling via China feared dead in UK truck tragedy

Nguyen Xuan Quang, deputy chairman of Hung Dong commune in Vinh and home of suspected victim Tran Thi Ngoc, said he suspected people would continue to depart for Europe despite the risks.

Vietnamese Prime Minister Nguyen Xuan Phuc on Saturday ordered an investigation on Saturday into overseas human trafficking.

“Some of them have successfully arrived there and sent some 3 billion dong (US$129,000) back home,” he said, adding that he has urged families to reconsider. “The local government has warned them about illegally going because it is too risky, but they don’t listen to us.”

Police in Britain said on Saturday they had charged one man, 25-year-old Maurice Robinson of Craigavon in Northern Ireland, with 39 counts of manslaughter and other offences including conspiracy to traffic people.

Some 70 per cent of Vietnamese trafficking cases in the United Kingdom between 2009 and 2016 were for labour exploitation, including cannabis production and work in nail salons, according to a British government report last year.

Additional reporting by Reuters