Advertisement

French court convicts Vietnamese lorry tragedy suspects

  • 18 defendants were jailed for up to 10 years over their role in the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants who suffocated in a refrigerated container
  • According to phone intercepts, the group referred to the migrants as ‘goods’ or ‘chickens’

Reading Time:2 minutes
Why you can trust SCMP
Police forensics officers work on a lorry, found to be containing 39 bodies, at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, east of London, in October 2019. Photo: AFP
A French court on Friday handed down jail sentences of up to 10 years in a people smuggling trial over the death of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a refrigerated container on the way to Britain.
Advertisement

The bodies of the migrants who suffocated to death – two of whom were just 15 years old – were discovered inside the sealed unit at a port near London in October 2019.

They had travelled in the lorry from northern France to Belgium before crossing the Channel to Britain.

Two ringleaders of the operation – one Romanian and one British – were convicted at a trial in 2021 in Britain and sentenced to 27 and 20 years in prison respectively. Other suspects, notably the drivers, received 12 to 20 years, while a Belgian court handed a 15-year term to a Vietnamese man for heading the local cell of the network.

02:24

First bodies of UK truck victims arrive in Vietnam

First bodies of UK truck victims arrive in Vietnam

Of the 19 defendants in the French trial – who include Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Algerian and Moroccan nationals – 18 were found guilty.

Advertisement

Four of them, all Vietnamese, were found guilty of involuntary manslaughter and sentenced to nine or 10 years in prison.

Advertisement