How Vietnamese death truck victim paid for £ 30,000 'business class' trip to Britain – Daily Mail, Dailymail.co.uk

The devastated parents of a Vietnamese woman thought to be among 39 migrants found dead in a lorry have told of how she was hoodwinked into paying £ 30, 000 for a ‘VIP’ trip to the UK after being told by smugglers it was ‘a safe route’.

Pham Thi Tra My, 26, sent her mother a series of harrowing messages telling her she ‘loved her’ and was ‘dying because she couldn’t breathe’ in the moments before her death, her family have claimed.

They claim to have paid people smugglers £ 30, 000 for their daughter to travel to the UK viaChina‘in search of a better life’ .

Nguyen Thi Phong and Pham Van Thin, have toldCNNit was ‘very painful’ to receive the text – saying she must have known she was going to die when she sent it.

‘I’ve lost both my loved one and my money,’ her father Pham said, claiming he and his partner scraped together the money to pay for their daughter to travel to the UK.

The pair, who make around $ 400 a month between them, said the smugglers did not tell them how their daughter would be transported to the UK.

‘The smugglers said that this was a … safe route, that people would go by airplane, car … if I had known she would go by this route, I would not have let her go, ‘Pham added.

It come as it was revealed the migrants, six of whom were thought to have been Vietnamese, were naked or had minimal clothing when they were found in the container on Wednesday in Purfleet, Essex.

It is also believed that the Vietnamese migrants are all from the Can district district in northern Vietnam and had been ‘banging on the doors’ for help and had ‘foam coming from their mouths’ when found.

A human rights worker in Vietnam, who was spoken with Tra My’s family, today revealed she made the perilous journey because her family was in debt and she was desperately trying to help them.

‘She had just returned from Japan where she was working to try and pay off the debt. And that was not enough and so she looked for a better future, ‘she told the BBC.

Asking to remain anonymous, the human rights worker continued:’ For this girl it is very sad that she took the risk because she was dealing with debt that was created by another man in the family.

‘And I also learnt that the service that she was using was called ‘very important service’ and so it is like a business class ticket on the lorry and with that she had to pay double or three times the price of the cheap ticket. ‘

The human rights worker added that migrants are told they can vast amounts of money by moving to the UK, and the 26 – year-old may have been convinced to purchase a ‘VIP ticket’ to get there.

He family mortgaged the house to get that money for her, the human rights worked added.

Pham Thi Tra’s last text messages were sent at 10. 28 pm BST on Tuesday – two hours before the truck reached the UK, as it was en route from Belgium.

She told her mother: ‘I’m sorry Mum. My journey abroad hasn’t succeeded. Mum, I love you so much. I’m dying because I can’t breathe. ‘

Tra My’s brother told the BBC on Friday that his sister had told them not to contact her because ‘the organisers’ did not allow her to receive calls.

He said she flew to China from her home in Can Lộc, a rural district of Hà Tĩnh Province in Vietnam, then left for France and initially attempted to cross the border into the UK on October 19, but ‘ got caught ‘and turned back.

Tra My is thought be among the eight women and 31 men who were discovered inside the ‘metal coffin’ lorry container on Wednesday morning. The Vietnamese families of a 26 -year-old man and a 19 – year-old woman have also contacted the BBC raising fears they could be among those dead.

Another of the suspected victims was revealed to be Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20.

His father Nguyen Dinh Gia said his son told him two weeks ago he planned to travel to Britain from France, where he had been living illegally since 2018.

He said he would pay 11, 000 pounds ($ 14, 000) for the journey and planned to work in a nail salon when he got to Britain.

But Gia got a call several days ago from a Vietnamese man saying ‘Please have some sympathy, something unexpected happened, ‘he told AFP.

‘ I fell to the ground when I heard that, ‘Gia told AFP.

‘ It seemed that he was in the truck with the accident, all of them dead, ‘he added.

His father told The Associated Press he had not been able to reach him since last week. He had said he would join a group in Paris that was trying to reach England.

‘He often called home but I haven’t been able to reach him since the last time we talked last week, ‘Nguyen Dinh Gia said. ‘I told him that he could go to anywhere he wants as long as it’s safe. He shouldn’t be worry about money, I’ll take care of it. ‘

He said his son left home in central Ha Tinh province to work in Russia in 2017, then on to Ukraine. In April 2018, he arrived in Germany then traveled to France. He told his family that he wanted to go to the U.K.

Luong’s older brother, Pham Dinh Hai, said that Luong had a tattoo of praying hands on a cross on his right shoulder. The family said they shared the information with local authorities.

Both suspected victims are from Ha Tinh, an impoverished province in a part of Vietnam where many of the country illegal migrants come from.

Many have their sights set on Britain, where they end up working in nail salons or on cannabis farms, hoping for quick riches.

They can pay smugglers up to $ 40, 000 for the dangerous journey across eastern Europe – often via China or Russia – an enormous sum in Vietnam where the annual per capital income is around $ 2, 400, according to the World Bank.

Those who cannot pay upfront often have to work off their debt to traffickers, which may include a fee for falsified documents.

This is while a third Vietnamese family said a 19 – year-old woman was missing after calling relatives at 6. 20 am on Tuesday to say she was getting into a container and was turning her phone off.

Bernie Gravett, a former Metropolitan police officer who now advises the EU on human trafficking, said families trying to help their loved ones travel abroad would pay large sums of money to smugglers.

He told BBC Breakfast: ‘In Vietnam it is assessed at 20 to 30, 000 US dollars, from China it’s 40 to 50, 000 US dollars. ‘

Mr Gravett said identifying the victims found in Essex would be a ha rd and long process due to the possible use of false identification documents and the numbers of people traveling to Europe.

He said: ‘It’s a cruel stage for the families, because hundreds if not thousands are currently on those routes, so I appreciate we are getting calls from Vietnam saying my loved one is missing and my loved one may be on that lorry but they could be on another lorry.

‘These lorries are coming through on a weekly basis, we have just found one, others get through undetected and the victims then go on to be exploited in the UK. ‘

Mr Gravett added: ‘Victims will be given fake documents, so with Chinese generally they are given Korean documents or other documents depending on the country of destination.

‘ Most often they are stripped of all documentation so that when they get to the UK then documents are provided relating to this country. ‘

It comes as detectives are continuing to question four people over the migrant deaths.

A 48 – year-old man from Northern Ireland was detained at Stansted Airport on Friday on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and manslaughter, Essex Police said.

Officers had earlier arrested a couple, haulage boss Thomas Maher and his wife Joanna, both 38, of Warrington, on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter and people trafficking .

It followed the arrest of the driver of the Scania truck on suspicion of murder on Wednesday, who remains in custody.

On Thursday, detectives were granted more time to question Mo Robinson, 25, from Northern Ireland, after the bodies of eight women and 31 men were found in the refrigerated trailer in an industrial park in Grays in the early hours of Wednesday.

In Belgium, police are hunting the driver who delivered the trailer to Zeebrugge, the port it left before arriving in the UK.

A spokesman from the Belgian prosecutor’s office said: ‘We’re trying to identify the driver.’

He said Belgian authorities were also working to ‘track the route of the container’ and find anyone responsible for ‘collaborating with the transport’.

‘We would like people to be arrested as soon as possible,’ he added.

The Maher’s told MailOnline that they sold the lorry cab a year ago to a company in Ireland – but police officers investigating the tragedy raided their property yesterday. The refrigerated trailer carrying the 39 frozen trafficking victims is believed to be owned by a rental firm in Dublin.

A Cheshire Police patrol car arrived at the Irish couple’s house at 7am on Thursday before up to a dozen police officers went inside at around Midday – just before the arrests were announced. The pair have not been seen.

Earlier this week Mrs Maher told MailOnline: ‘It’s the cab – my name was down as owning it.

‘We did own it but sold it 13 months ago ‘, adding they sold it to a company in County Monaghan, close to where truck driver Maurice’ Mo ‘Robinson, 25, lives.

Police are also questioning the Northern Irish trucker for the third day with a decision on whether to charge him with murder or release him.

An Essex Police spokesman said: ‘We have carried out warrants in Cheshire as part of the investigation into 39 bodies being discovered in a lorry trailer in Grays.

‘As a result, a 38 – year-old man and a 38 – year-old woman from Warrington have been arrested on suspicion of conspiracy to traffic people and on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter. A 25 – year -old man, the driver of the lorry, remains in custody on suspicion of murder ‘.

The container carrying migrants had previously criss-crossed the Channel via refugee hotspots in the week before it arrived in Britain with 39 frozen bodies inside, perhaps for several days, it was revealed yesterday.

Yesterday their bodies were moved by private ambulance from Tilbury docks to Chelmsford mortuary for post-examinations that will run into next week.

Essex Police initially believed all of the dead were Chinese nationals, but the force said at a press conference ‘this is now a developing picture’ amid reports several may be Vietnamese.

Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills said she would give no more details about the nationalities of the victims until formal identification

The BBC said it has been in contact with six Vietnamese families who fear their relatives are among the dead, with some having the smuggling fees repaid.

(Relatives of 26 – year-old Pham Tra My told the broadcaster they have not been able to contact her since she sent a text on Tuesday night saying she was suffocating.

‘I am really, really sorry, Mum and Dad , my trip to a foreign land has failed, ‘she wrote.

‘ I am dying, I can’t breathe. I love you very much Mum and Dad. I am sorry, Mother. ‘

Her family said they had paid £ 30, 000 for her to be smuggled into Britain, which has now been repaid.

If the fridge on the hermetically sealed trailer was not running there would be no air coming in, suffocating people inside, according to Richard Burnett, chief executive of the Road Haulage Association.

It is not yet known when the victims entered the trailer, where temperatures can be as low as minus 25 C if the fridge is activated, or the exact route it traveled.

Belgian officials said the trailer arrived at Zeebrugge at 2. 49 pm on Tuesday and left the port the same day en route to Purfleet.

The trailer arrived at Purfleet at around 12. 30 am on Wednesday, and was picked up by the cab, known as the tractor, which arrived from Northern Ireland via Holyhead in North Wales on Sunday.

The lorry left the port at Purfleet shortly after 1. 05 am before police were called to the Waterglade Industrial Park on Eastern Avenue in Grays at 1. 40 am.

China has called for joint efforts to counter human smuggling, while vigils have been held in London and Belfast to pay tribute to the victims.

The Vietnamese embassy in London has said some families have contacted them asking about relatives but it is yet to receive any information from police.