On 23 October 2019, 39 bodies of Vietnamese nationals were found in a lorry container in Grays, Essex, UK. The victims arrived in Britain from Belgium by sea in a refrigerated container. GPS data showed that this container had crossed back and forth between the UK and Europe before the container had finally been found.

Maurice Robinson, the lorry driver, has been charged with manslaughter. He has also been charged with people trafficking and unlawful immigration. At present, five people have been arrested in the UK and eight people have been arrested by the Vietnamese police, in connection with the deaths.  They were charged with the organisation of smuggling people overseas. The lorry driver has been referred to as being part of a global ring of people smugglers.  

Priti Patel, the UK Home Secretary, said “there is much much more to do” and that there is work underway to coordinate an international response to the “appalling incident”. Thus far, documents have been sent by Britain to Vietnam for ID checks on four of the migrants.

Assistant Chief Constable, Tim Smith of Essex Police stated that there is “direct contact with a number of families in Vietnam and the UK” and they have identified families for some of the victims. Officers used Interpol Disaster Victim Identification Standards in order to identify the victims. This included the implementation of fingerprint and DNA checks.  Evidence has been gathered across a number of jurisdictions worldwide. VietHome, an organisation which represents the Vietnamese community in the UK, passed on pictures of 20 people who have been reported missing to detectives. The Vietnamese embassy in London also set up a contact line for people to get in touch.   

THE INTERNATIONAL RESPONSE TO THE INCIDENT

Stephen Hale, the Chief Executive of Refugee Action, stated that the appalling tragedy demonstrates the “urgent need for the government to create safe and legal routes to the UK for people who are fleeing war and persecution”.  Satbir Singh, a member of the Joint Council for the Welfare of Immigrants stated that “ultimate responsibility for these deaths lies with the government policy which has deliberately closed down safe and legal routes in Britain.”

Steve Valdez Symonds, Amnesty’s Internationals UK’s Refugee and Migrant Director has also  stated that “people who are forced to take dangerous and sometimes fatal passages to reach the UK often do so because current immigrant policies and practices deny them safe and legal options. The Foreign Affairs Select Committee chair, Tom Tugenhat stated that “this case should serve as a wake-up call to the Foreign Office and to the Government.”

THE GLOBAL IMPLICATIONS OF THIS TRAGEDY

Trafficking persons is a serious crime and human rights violation. Victims of trafficking are exposed to harsh conditions and can suffer trauma.  People may be unable to seek assistance from the State authorities to escape exploitation. Therefore, efforts to address trafficking persons require a multi-agency approach. This involves close coordination between the relevant government agencies and national and international organisations. The United Nations system has offered to help States to create anti-trafficking strategies. 

The United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees has a role in assisting States to ensure that victims of trafficking without identity documents are able to establish their nationality status in order to prevent being rendered stateless. The Inter-Agency Coordination Group Against Trafficking aims to improve international cooperation and coherence in their approach to assisting trafficked victims. In addition to this, the European Union and the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime have launched the Global Action to Prevent and Address Trafficking in Persons and the Smuggling of Migrants. The initiative, implemented from 2015-2019, aimed to plan and implement strategic national counter-trafficking and counter smuggling efforts.

Human trafficking is a growing problem. Salvation Army figures show that more Vietnamese men were referred to the charity between July 2018 and July 2019 than any other nationality. Mimu Vu, who is a leading expert on the trafficking of Vietnamese young people, said that she had met a higher than usual number of people who had originated from the Ha Tinh, a province in North Central Vietnam, during her visits to migrant camps.  Mimu Vu also stated that the Ha Tinh environmental disaster, where a steel plant built on the coast discharged industrial waste into the marine ecosystem, has been problematic and is a push factor for migration. 

IS TRAFFICKING IN THE UK BECOMING MORE COMMON?

According to Police Recorded Crime, in the year to March 2019, 5,059 offences of modern slavery in England and Wales were  recorded. This is a 49% increase compared to the previous year. The number of British people identified as modern slavery victims has risen by 72%. The Salvation Army saw a 58% increase in British nationals entering its service in the last year.

Jakub Sobik of Anti-Slavery International said, “These numbers show that nationality of people targeted to be exploited doesn’t matter, all it takes is finding vulnerable people and a way to trap and exploit them. The line between smuggling and trafficking is becoming blurred on the journey.” Debbie Beadle, the director of programmes of ECPAT International, an anti-trafficking organisation, has stated that many police forces and local authorities are not “trained or equipped to identify these victims of trafficking”.  Clearly more needs to be done in order to tackle the problem of human trafficking.

Shivani is currently studying the LPC at the University of Law. She thoroughly enjoyed studying international human rights law during her final year at university and hopes to pursue a career in this field. 

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