Belgium puts 23 on trial over UK migrant truck deaths

Belgium on Wednesday opened the trial of 23 people suspected of involvement in a people-smuggling ring implicated in the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants on a truck in Britain two years ago.

The Bruges trial, expected to last two days, focuses on the fact that the truck left for Britain on October 22, 2019 from Anderlecht on the outskirts of Brussels, where the gang allegedly had two safe houses to group migrants.

The bodies of the migrants, 31 men and eight women, aged 15 to 44 and all from Vietnam, were discovered the next day when the container they were in was opened — they had suffocated in extremely hot weather during the ferry crossing.

They had tried without success to pierce the metal container’s roof with a pole.

The main defendant, 45-year-old Vo Van Hong from Vietnam, is charged with running a criminal organisation and faces up to 15 years in prison if convicted. He denies involvement.

A Belgian prosecutor told the trial: “What stays with me the most is a bloody handprint on the door of the container.”

Several men have already been convicted in Britain and Vietnam in connection with the case.

– ‘Well organised’ –

The crime triggered police investigations on both sides of the Channel and in Vietnam.

In May last year, Belgian authorities raided several addresses, most in the Brussels region, to round up Vietnamese suspected of links to the people-smuggling outfit.

A verdict in the trial may take several weeks to be delivered. Prosecutors are seeking prison terms from 18 months to 15 years for the defendants.

At least 18 of the 23 defendants were allegedly members of the people-smuggling ring, with the remainder alleged accomplices used as safe-house guards and grocery shoppers.

Prosecutors said the “very well organised” gang was specialised in clandestinely transporting people into Europe then Britain for a total fee of 24,000 euros ($27,000) each.

Van Hong allegedly controlled when the migrants could turn on their mobile phones and watched over their arrival and stay in Brussels, which served as a staging point in Europe before the voyage to Britain.

At least 15 of the 39 Vietnamese found in the back of the truck has been through the Anderlecht safe houses, the court heard.

Prosecutors said the gang used an Irish trucking company that regularly imported Vietnamese biscuits to get the migrants across the Channel, and that Vietnamese gang members took charge of them once they got to Britain.

The gang was responsible for “at least 130 transports” into Britain, according to prosecutors.

– Poor region of Vietnam –

Many of the dead migrants in the truck came from a poor region in the centre of Vietnam.

Families there can rack up debts of thousands of dollars to have one member of their family smuggled into Britain in the hope they can secure a better life.

The Belgian investigation is not yet closed, with two more suspects still being sought, according to prosecutors.

Belgian authorities, who early last year conducted their investigation with counterparts in France — where 13 people were charged — established that the alleged ring daily transported dozens of migrants coming from Southeast Asia.

Prosecutors say the smugglers in Belgium had connections in France, the Netherlands and Germany, and that it was believed some of the defendants continued their illegal activities after the October 2019 tragedy.