British police on Friday published the names of the 39 Vietnamese who died in a refrigerated truck last month, with many of them from the same province.
Ten teenagers including two 15-year-old boys were among the victims whose bodies were found on October 23 in a container in the southeastern English region of Essex. The majority of victims, 20, were from the central Vietnamese region of Nghe An, with another 10 from Ha Tinh. The victims were from a total of seven different provinces.
Tim Smith, the police leading the investigation said “Our priority has been to identify the victims, to preserve the dignity of those who have died and to support the victims’ friends and families. It remained of paramount importance to us to ensure that an individual’s next of kin were informed, and that they were given some time to absorb this tragic news before we publicly confirmed their loved one’s identity. We have worked closely with the National Crime Agency, the Foreign and Commonwealth Office, and the Vietnamese Authorities to identify and locate their families.”
Meanwhile, the British and Vietnamese governments are working together to repatriate the bodies, the police said. (Punch)
