Death trap lorry had 39 lifeless Chinese citizens in a UK industrial park. The known information about the incident revolves around their nationalities — the specific identities, where, and how they traveled from remained amiss.
A refrigerated truck believed to be the death trap lorry has left many wondering the reason for the dead Chinese nationals to travel in such conditions, even as China is considered the world’s second-biggest economy.
Map shows the details of the path taken by the lorry.
Investigations around the murder case have begun involving the Belgian Federal Prosecutor’s office and the UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson calling for the culprits to be brought to justice.
Meanwhile, the police have raided the home and hair salon of Joanna Maher, 38, and husband Thomas,38 with connections to the death of the Chinese nationals. The family claim that the death trap lorry was sold 13 months ago.
The Chinese state media points accusing finger at the UK for failing to take responsibility for people being smuggled into the country.
A follow-up discovery has it that nine suspected migrants have been rescued from the back of a truck on the M20 in Kent traveling towards London. Police at the scene after being informed had the migrants assessed by paramedics before they were handed over to the Home Office for processing.
Death trap lorry, the immigrant reason
Despite that China is the world’s second-biggest economy, there are many poor individuals as much as there are the wealthy ones. The country has a robust economy, but opportunities within the economic landscape are not evenly distributed. As a result, China has very wealthy and extreme poverty nationals.
Notwithstanding the socio-economic status of Chinese nationals, both the wealthy and the less privileged citizens migrate to the US or Europe for varied reasons.
There is a migration path for skilled academics, where science and technology opportunities might take them to the United States and other high-income countries. In the UK, almost 100,000 Tier 4 study visas were granted to Chinese citizens — up 13% on the previous year and about 40% of the global total.
Compared with the UK, Spain and Italy have higher numbers of China Immigrants who take up unfavorable jobs. The UK government’s 2018 annual report mentioned China as the fourth-most common country of origin for victims of modern slavery in the UK.
An associate director of MPI’s International program, Natalia Banulescu-Bogdan, mentioned to CNN that migration from China involves the low-skilled, middle-skilled to the highly-skilled.
She further explained that migrants are not always the poor, considering the cost implications of migrating to either the US or Europe. Whichever be the case, illegal and legal forms of migrating cost a fortune.
Smuggling is the suspected migration means that could have resulted in the death of the Chines nationals in the death trap lorry. Due to the unequal distribution of opportunities, some citizens still embrace this migration window.
A common way the deaths could have occurred is a smuggling operation gone wrong. Smugglers rarely stay through from the beginning point to the end; passengers are often transferred from one host to another to get to the US or Europe.
Most often than not, conveyors are oblivious of their human cargo, since it is a smuggling operation.
Chinese national’s migration rate
Chinese nationals always migrate into the US. In 2016, the US Border Patrol apprehended 2,439 and 1077 in 2018.
The economic boom of China suffered as vast migration moved from rural to urban cities. The Migration Policy Institute reports that 10 million of the international migrant population of 258 million are Chinese citizens.
Chinese migrants are located in the US, with a population of 2.5 million, 712,000 in Canada, and 473,000 in Australia.
Meanwhile, Britain’s National Crime Agency said its specialists were working to “urgently identify and take action against any organized crime groups who have played a role in causing these deaths.”
It said in May that the number of people being smuggled into Britain via trucks was on the rise.
Jeremy Corbyn, leader of Britain’s opposition Labour Party, said the latest deaths were a human tragedy that needed answers and reflected:
Can we just think for a moment of what it must have been like for those 39 people, obviously in a desperate and dangerous situation, for their lives to end, suffocated to death in a container?
