1:05 am October 23, Essex County ambulance agency, northeastern London, receives a call to report the horrific discovery inside a container truck.

The car is parked in the Waterglade industrial park, the town of Grays. When paramedics opened the trunk door, they discovered the bodies of 38 adults and a teenager, presumably immigrants.

The new car was about 70 minutes into British territory and the Mo Robinson driver did not seem to know what was inside the container when he received it from the Port of Purfleet just over an hour earlier. He was the one who called for an ambulance after the bodies were discovered. The 25-year-old Northern Ireland driver was arrested by police on charges related to the group's death.

Data from the Global Positioning System GPS shows that the refrigerated container made two trips between the UK and continental Europe between October 16 and 22, when the bodies of 39 people were discovered in the industrial park. in Essex County.

The container was leased to a business company GTR Europe in Monaghan County, Ireland on October 15 and this is the first time the company has leased a cargo container. She left Monaghan the same day, went to Northern Ireland, then returned south to Ireland.

GTR Europe is a family business that has been operating for more than 15 years, based in Dublin. The company, which initially provided logistics and then moved to rent containers and trailers, now owns one of Ireland's largest fleets. All cars are equipped with GPS and cockpit radio. GTR Europe confirmed it was the owner of the frozen container but did not know what the tenant used it for.

The container traveled from the port of Dublin, Ireland, to Holyhead in north Wales on the night of October 15, and then crossed the sea across the European continent on the evening of October 16. It passes through the cities of Dunkirk and Lille, France, and Bruges, Belgium. Dunkirk is famous as a place where traffickers hunt for migrants seeking to cross the English Channel to England. From October 17 to 22, the container traveled between England and the European continent twice.

British police confirmed that the container had crossed the sea from Belgium to the Port of Purfleet, Essex County, at 0:30 am on October 23. Here, tractor driver Mo Robinson received it at 1:05 and moved to the Waterglade industrial zone when 39 bodies were discovered, so they were notified to the authorities.

In addition to driver Robinson, British police have now arrested three suspects, including Thomas and Joanna Maher, 38, and an unidentified 48-year-old from Northern Ireland. Bulgarian television reported that the Maher couple owned the Scania tractor that Robinson controlled. However, the two told the reporter that they sold it 13 months ago to a company in Monaghan County, near where Robinson lives.

Robinson lives in Portadown, Co Armagh County, Northern Ireland. He had a girlfriend and was about to welcome his first child. Robinson regularly posts articles about his truck on Facebook and Instagram, referring to the names "Polar Express" and "Scandinavian Express".

Essex County Police on 24/10 reported all victims including 31 men and 8 women died in containers believed to be from China. However, authorities now believe that the victims may be of a different nationality. The Chinese embassy in London sent staff to Essex to verify the situation, but the victims' nationality could not be determined.

Vietnamese citizen Pham Van Thin sent an application to the People's Committee of Nghen, Can Loc and Ha Tinh towns on October 25, saying that Pham Thi Tra My's daughter was "one of 39 victims in a container truck". Family members said that before losing contact, Tra My sent a message to mother with the content "I die because I cannot breathe". Victims can be locked in trunks for more than 12 hours.

The Vietnamese Embassy in the UK is working with police to investigate the question that not all of the 39 victims bodies on container trucks are Chinese.

The process of detecting a container truck containing 39 bodies in Essex.

The container truck was taken to a nearby port while the bodies of 39 victims were transferred to Broomfield Hospital in the town of Chelmsford, Essex, on the evening of October 24 to serve the autopsy. Dr Richard Shepherd, one of Britain's forensic forensic researchers, said the 39-person autopsy would be "very slow and sequential". The team of experts will also look for clues related to the process of victims entering the container, whether they were beaten, forced or sexually assaulted.

According to the source present at the scene, when opening the container, the emergency response staff was shocked to see dozens of bodies piled up. The victims may have died about 3-4 hours ago, most of their bodies were cramped, bloody around some bodies and on container floors.

"The victims may have hurt themselves and others in a desperate attempt to escape. There were bloody fingerprints along the door, they might have banged here for help. The victims wore little clothes, "the source said.

In addition to the Essex police, Belgian authorities are also investigating the incident. They will focus on the organizations involved in illegal trafficking and those supporting the journey.

"Snake-head" mafia gangs who illegally bring people from China to developed Western countries like the UK and the US are the top suspects behind the tragedy.

According to many rumors, the "snake head" often lured the victims caught on the street with the promise of taking them to the West to enjoy a better life for £ 30,000 ($ 38,000). After reaching agreement, the "customers" of the "solid heads" will be transported in truckloads from Fujian, China. If successful, immigrants will start paying for "solid heads" from the time they get the job and pay off within three years. If they do not pay in full, they will put pressure on the families of the victims at home, forcing them to pay them all.

The BBC's investigation showed that during the period 2013-2016, British police made 27,860 arrests for illegal cross-border migration and 2,482 others arrested for organizing human trafficking. The number of people living illegally in the UK is currently estimated to be between 300,000 and 900,000, but this figure is not entirely accurate due to statistical difficulties. The countries with the most undocumented citizens seeking to enter the UK in 2018 were Eritrea, Iraq, Afghanistan, Iran, Albania, Sudan, Vietnam, Pakistan, Syria and Ethiopia.

Many seek to come to the UK to seek a better life, flee violence or risk being killed, tortured or raped in their homeland because of its developed economy and popular language. However, it is relatively difficult to obtain asylum in the UK, where less than 1% of the world's refugees are.

In addition to the limited resettlement program for Syrians, asylum seekers are forced to come to England. Access to the UK in the form of family reunification means that people with asylum in the UK apply to bring family members to live with. Moreover, the stricter policy, which includes detention of immigrants (Britain is one of the rare countries with no time limit on holding immigrants), also discourages those who seek asylum legally. for fear they will be detained for long.

The EU's Dublin rule requires that an individual be given asylum only in the first safe country they arrive in, making many people seek to enter the UK on dangerous journeys, often arranged by ruthless traffickers. .

Part of the reason for the increased trafficking in container trucks in the UK also comes from the loose management and inspection of entry containers, especially at less crowded local ports, including Purfleet. , Hull and Tilbury. In the case of 39 deaths, the container truck arrived at the Port of Purfleet. In 2018, about 3.6 million trucks and containers entered the UK through 40 major ports, but most were not inspected.

British Prime Minister Boris Johnson said he was "horrified" to hear about the tragedy in Essex. "I am receiving regular updates and the Home Office will work closely with the Essex police to determine exactly what happened. Please send my condolences to the victims and their families," he wrote. on Twitter.

A similar traumatic event occurred 19 years ago in Kent County, England. In June 2000, the bodies of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants were discovered in a truck trunk in Dover. Dutch driver Perry Wacker was convicted of manslaughter in 2001 and sentenced to 14 years in prison. In 2003, nine members of a "snake-headed" gang were arrested for being involved in a tragedy.

Container truck route carrying 39 people to the UK. See here.