France orders trial of suspects over 2019 migrant lorry deaths

In the latest of several trials in Europe over migrant lorry deaths, France is set to try 19 men, allegedly accused of a people-smuggling plot that led to the killings of 39 Vietnamese migrants in the back of a lorry in the year 2019, a source close to the matter said on Wednesday.

The migrants succumbed to suffocation and lost their lives while being transported across the Channel to Britain in refrigerated containers.

The youngest victims who died in the tragedy were two 15-year-old boys.

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The bodies of the deceased were found at a port near London, wrapped inside a sealed unit in October 2019.

On Tuesday, the French magistrates investigating the incident, ordered the trial of 19 alleged suspects, aged between 21 to 58 over the tragedy, said the source.

The source further added that the global probe indicates that the suspects, majorly of Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Algerian and Moroccan origin, are part of a large network that smuggles people from Vietnam to Europe.

As per the source, the suspects are accused of organising transport facilities for the migrants, driving taxis or arranging accommodation, and owning properties where they could hide them in the Paris region.

As per AFP reports, the wiretapped phone calls revealed that the suspects referred to their victims as "merchandise" or even "chickens".

These men will be on trial for facilitating the illegal entry of migrants, for enabling the stay of foreigners on French territory and collaborating together with a view to committing crimes which could land them in prison for up to 10 years, said the source.

Four will also be judged for manslaughter for failing to ensure duty of care during the smuggling operation, which could lead to three-year imprisonment.

Migrants willing to risk lives to reach UK

The cross-border investigation unveiled that migrants, before being driven to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to cross the Channel, were loaded into a truck in northern France.

The incident highlighted how the migrants are willing to risk their lives to reach the United Kingdom.

The probe also revealed that some people pay around $40,000 to go on the perilous journey.

Post-mortem tests found the victims died from lack of oxygen and overheating.

'Illegal migrants to be detained and deported,'says Sunak

Earlier this year, UK PM Rishi Sunak vowed to resolve the issue of illegal migrants as the country recorded the arrival of more than 45,000 migrants to the shores on small boats.

As per the draft law, anyone who will arrive in the UK illegally, will not be allowed to claim asylum, Sunak said at a news conference.

"If you come here illegally, you can't claim asylum. You can't benefit from our modern slavery protections. You can't make spurious human rights claims and you can't stay," he added.

"We will detain those who come here illegally and then remove them in weeks, either to their own country if it is safe to do so. Or to a Safe Third Country like Rwanda and once you are removed, you will be banned as you are in America and Australia from ever re-entering our country," he stated.

"The current situation is neither moral nor sustainable. It cannot go on. And it's devastatingly unfair on those who most need our help, but can't get it as our asylum system is being overwhelmed by those travelling illegally across the channel," Sunak said.

In the parliament, Right-winger Braverman said that she was "confident that this bill is compatible with international obligations", despite earlier accepting that it "pushed the boundaries of international law".

(With inputs from agencies)

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