Irish police have found 14 migrants in a refrigerated container on a vehicle at Rosslare port, three of whom are believed to be Vietnamese.
Irish police announced on January 10 that they had opened an investigation into suspected human trafficking after discovering a group of immigrants including nine men, three women, and two children inside a container on a tractor-trailer inside the port of Rosslare.
British authorities alerted Ireland to the group in the container after receiving a tip-off from a migrant. Irish police said they stopped the trailer for inspection as it was about to leave the ferry from Zeebrugge, Belgium, to Rosslare. The ferry departed Zeebrugge on January 8.
The entire group was medically examined and is currently in stable health. Irish media reported that the group included three Vietnamese, one Turkish, and the rest were Kurds from Iran and Iraq.
Local councillor Ger Carthy also said the group of migrants spotted included Vietnamese, Turkish and Kurdish nationals. He said the British Border Force had earlier received an emergency call from the ferry and passed it on to Irish authorities, triggering a multi-agency response.
"The caller to the UK Border Force line said they were having trouble breathing on the ferry, then added they were inside a refrigerated container," Carthy said.
Rosslare Port in Ireland, 2021. Photo: AFP
Irish Transport Minister Eamon Ryan said he was "relieved" the migrants were safe, as they were believed to have been inside the container on the lorry for more than 24 hours.
The Port of Rosslare is a hub for passengers and cargo between the UK and Europe, with notable routes to France and Spain. The Irish Road Haulage Association said the refrigerated container was loaded onto a tractor-trailer in Paris before arriving in Zeebrugge.
At a press conference on January 11, Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Pham Thu Hang said the Vietnamese Embassy in the United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland, which is also in Ireland, is coordinating with local authorities to verify the identities of the three people believed to be Vietnamese citizens in the incident. The Vietnamese Embassy will closely follow the investigation process and is ready to take necessary citizen protection measures, Ms. Hang said.
The port of Zeebrugge was also the departure point for the container truck carrying 39 Vietnamese people before it was loaded onto a ferry to the UK in 2019. The victims later died from lack of oxygen and overheating in a confined space.
Duc Trung - Vu Anh (According to AFP )
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