Mass truck in the UK: thirteen people charged in France

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The thirteen people arrested on Tuesday, May 26 in France, following a phone call linked to the investigation into the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a refrigerated truck in October in Great Britain, have been charged, we learned from judicial sources, this Saturday, May 30.

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The thirteen people arrested on Tuesday, May 26, were all charged on May 29 for "trafficking in human beings in an organized gang", "assistance with entry to or stay in an organized gang" and "criminal association". Six of them are also being prosecuted for "manslaughter". Of the thirteen, twelve were placed in pre-trial detention and one under judicial supervision.

An international police operation

These suspects, mostly Vietnamese and French, were arrested Tuesday in various places in the Paris region. At the same time, thirteen other people were also arrested in Belgium as part of an international police operation, coordinated by the judicial cooperation body Eurojust. In Belgium, 11 people were imprisoned after being charged with "trafficking in human beings with aggravating circumstances, membership of a criminal and false organization and use of false documents", according to the Belgian federal prosecutor's office. Two others, charged with the same charges, were released.

According to several sources close to the investigation, a man suspected of being an organizer of the migrant smuggling network was also arrested on Wednesday in Germany, as part of a European arrest warrant issued by France. On 23 October, the corpses of 31 men and eight women of Vietnamese nationality, including two 15-year-old adolescents, were discovered aboard a container in the Grays industrial area, east of London. The container came from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

Technical investigations and physical monitoring

According to a French judicial source, the investigators were able to determine, thanks to technical investigations and physical surveillance, that the migrants were leaving from Bierne, in the north of France, towards Zeebrugge. Those arrested in the Paris region are suspected of having hosted and transported migrants by taxi between the Paris region and the North, according to this source.

The network continued to operate after the tragedy, as well as during the confinement due to the coronavirus epidemic. During this period, the traffickers adapted by fitting out the cabs of the trucks to hide the candidates for the crossing of the Channel, at the rate of three or four per trip. Last month, an arrest had already taken place in Ireland: that of the alleged organizer of the rotation of the drivers participating in the traffic. In addition, in the British investigation, five people have already been charged, including Maurice Robinson, 25, the driver of the truck intercepted in Grays. In early April, he pleaded guilty to manslaughter in a London court.

( with AFP )

Read also: Mass truck in London: the agonizing expectation of Vietnamese families

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