Valentin Calota, 37, appeared at Basildon Magistrates’ Court near London on Monday charged with facilitating illegal immigration between May 2018 and Oct 2019.
The victims, who included two 15-year-old boys, were discovered in October in the truck container on an industrial estate in Grays in Essex, about 20 miles (32 km) east of London.
Autopsies concluded that the provisional cause of death was a combination of hypoxia - oxygen deprivation - and hyperthermia - overheating - in an enclosed space.