26 people arrested in France and Belgium over truck deaths

By AFP, Reuters   May 27, 2020 | 06:03 am PT
26 people arrested in France and Belgium over truck deaths
Police forensics officers work on a lorry, found to be containing 39 dead bodies, at Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays, east of London. Photo by AFP/Ben Stansall.
26 people had been arrested in France and Belgium in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants found in the back of a truck near London last year.

French police have arrested 13 people in the Paris region during a raid carried out jointly with Belgian police on Tuesday, with 13 people also arrested around Brussels as part of the investigation, according to AFP.

Prosecutors said those held in raids around Brussels are suspected of running a people smuggling network believed to be behind the tragedy in Britain in October last year.

Last November, Vietnamese authorities released the identities of all 39 Vietnamese found dead on an industrial estate about 20 miles (32 km) east of London. The two youngest boys were 15 years old and oldest man was 44. Their remains were brought home later that month.

Twenty one of the victims were from Nghe An Province in north central Vietnam, 10 from neighboring Ha Tinh, and the rest from nearby Quang Binh and Thua Thien-Hue provinces, as well as Hai Duong Province and Hai Phong City in the north.

 
 
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