Vietnam gov’t officials gather at night for Essex truck death case

Vietnamese senior government on Sunday evening gathered at a meeting to discuss ways to solve a humanitarian crisis involving 39 migrants who were found dead in Essex, the UK late last month, many of them are believed to be Vietnamese nationals.

A view of the meeting. Photo: VGP

Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh chaired the meeting with the participation of Deputy Prime Minister Vu Duc Dam and representatives from Ministries of Public Security, Foreign Affairs, Transport, Finance, Health, Information and Communications, Government’s Office, Central Party Committee’s Office, Party’s Internal Commission, Central Propaganda and Education Commission and leaders of several localities.

Deputy PM Binh asked authorities to closely work with the related British agencies to identify the victims for soon announcement.

After Essex police said on November 1 that they believed the victims are Vietnamese nationals, and a delegation of Vietnamese police officers departed on November 2 for the UK and a delegation of diplomats left for the UK on November 3 for the identification process.

Speaking in a statement earlier this month, Spokeswoman Le Thi Thu Hang of the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the government of Vietnam thanked the British agencies for their efforts in solving the case and hoped that the investigations would be done soon to bring justice for the victims who are believed in multinational human trafficking.

Hang said Hanoi strongly condemned human smuggling and would make efforts to combat it.