French justice has ordered the trial of 19 men charged in connection with investigations into the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants who were found suffocated in a truck trailer in England in 2019 in a criminal court in Paris, a source close to AFP told AFP on Wednesday experienced.
These suspects, aged 21 to 58, of Vietnamese, French, Chinese, Algerian or Moroccan nationality, will be tried in Paris on a series of crimes linked to a vast network of illegal immigration from Vietnam to Europe, according to a decision issued on Tuesday two investigating magistrates.
This autumn 2019 tragedy shed a harsh light on the risks migrants face at the hands of clandestine networks.
On the morning of October 22, 2019, the victims were loaded into a trailer in northern France, which was then transported to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge to cross the English Channel before being picked up by another truck in England.
The bodies of 31 men and eight women, aged 15 to 44, all from Vietnam, were later discovered in the trailer in an industrial area east of London.
After a cross-country investigation, French investigators concluded that the 19 suspects – six of them in custody – were responsible for organizing the transport of the victims and the temporary housing of migrants in the Paris region.
According to phone taps, these men referred to the migrants as “goods” or “chickens.”
They are all convicted of aiding and abetting the illegal entry, onward journey or stay of a foreigner in France in an organized gang and of criminal association to commit crimes, punishable by 10 years imprisonment.
Four of them are also charged with negligent homicide for an apparent willful breach of a certain duty of care or security.
However, the charge of trafficking in an organized gang, a criminal offense carrying a 20-year sentence, was dismissed.
In addition to France, court cases were also held in the United Kingdom, Vietnam and Belgium.