France Charges 13 Suspected Migrant Smugglers Over UK Truck Deaths - Reports

France Charges 13 Suspected Migrant Smugglers Over UK Truck Deaths - Reports

France has charged 13 suspects as part of the probe into deaths of Vietnamese migrants found frozen in a lorry during attempted smuggling into the United Kingdom last fall, the France Info radio reported on Saturday, citing a source in the judiciary

MOSCOW (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 30th May, 2020) France has charged 13 suspects as part of the probe into deaths of Vietnamese migrants found frozen in a lorry during attempted smuggling into the United Kingdom last fall, the France Info radio reported on Saturday, citing a source in the judiciary.

According to the media outlet, the suspects have all been charged with human trafficking by an organized criminal group, assisting or participating in an organized group and the criminal community. Six of them have also been charged with negligent homicide.

Europol, the European Union's Agency for Law Enforcement Cooperation, said on Wednesday that the police in Belgium and France have detained 26 people involved in the manslaughter.

Suspects are believed to have been involved in smuggling of irregular migrants, mainly of Vietnamese background, through Belgium and France to the UK via the English Channel in "life-threatening conditions of transportation." The criminal network could have transported in such a way up to several dozen people daily for several months.

In October, the Essex police found bodies of 39 people, later identified as Vietnamese nationals, frozen to death in a truck that arrived in the UK from Belgium.