BREAKING NEWS on Vietnamese Human Trafficking Epidemic
We're learning more about the circumstances surrounding the deaths of 39 people in a shipping container found last week in Essex, in southeast England. British investigators are still trying to determine the identities and nationalities of the eight women and 31 men in the container, which was on the back of a truck. Each person was carrying a bag of personal belongings and many had mobile phones, which are being downloaded and forensically analyzed. At first, authorities said the victims may have been Chinese, but that assumption was thrown into question when at least one of the passengers was found to be Vietnamese. Now, the incident is believed to be a fatal example of a smuggling operation in which people from Vietnam pay to be transported illegally -- and often in dangerous conditions -- to Europe for a chance at a better life. A 25-year-old man, who was the driver of the truck, has been arrested and charged with manslaughter.
By Ivan Watson, Jo Shelley and Nguyen The Phuong, CNN
Updated 2:02 AM ET, Mon October 28, 2019
Nghe An, Vietnam (CNN)Amid the rice paddies and villages of central Vietnam, residents have a name for the shadowy network used to smuggle their loved ones to Europe.
Translated to English, it's called "the line," as in a factory production line.
This illicit system of moving people across borders has become so common that everyone in the hamlet of Do Thanh in Nghe An province seems to know someone who has made the journey.
"I sent my three sons," said Phan Van Thuong, a wiry 64-year-old grandfather with a crucifix tattooed on his chest. Two of them have already come back, he said, after they were arrested and deported from Britain.
From the balcony, Phan points out at the surrounding rice paddies. Many of them are abandoned. Farmers can't make enough money growing rice here any more, he said.
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