Marius Draghici, 50, pleaded guilty to manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration in connection with the deaths of 39 Vietnamese people in a container in the UK.
Draghici, a Romanian national, was arrested by the Eastern European country's national police in August 2022 and extradited to the UK. British prosecutors have charged Draghici with 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.
Draghici pleaded guilty at a hearing on June 23 at the Central Criminal Court in London, with a sentencing date to be set later. British officials said Draghici's role was to help transport the 39 Vietnamese people in the container after they arrived in the country.
British forensic officers remove a container containing the bodies of 39 Vietnamese people from the scene in October 2019. Photo: Reuters
The bodies of 39 Vietnamese people were discovered in a refrigerated container at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Essex on October 23, 2019. Investigators said they boarded the vehicle in northern France and paid smugglers more than $23,000 to cross the border into the UK.
The container carrying the victims was transported by ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet in the UK overnight. The victims later died from lack of oxygen and overheating in the confined space.
A Belgian court in 2022 sentenced a Vietnamese man to 15 years in prison for leading a human trafficking ring. In 2021, the UK sentenced four people to 13-27 years in prison.
French investigative judges on May 23 ordered the trial of 19 suspects who were part of a human trafficking ring linked to the 39 victims in a container, but it is unclear when the trial will take place. The suspects are accused of organizing the illegal transportation of migrants or owning apartments in Paris that hid them.
Nguyen Tien (According to AFP )
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