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A8 WORLD NEWS
Thursday 24 OcTOber 2019
Grim find: 39 dead in one of UK's worst trafficking cases

By GREGORY KATZ sealed vehicles after hav-
ALASTAIR GRANT ing been abandoned by
Associated Press traffickers.
GRAYS, England (AP) — Au- The tragedy recalls the
thorities found 39 people death of 58 migrants in
dead in a truck in an in- 2000 in a truck in Dover,
dustrial park in England on England, and the deaths
Wednesday and arrested in 2015 of 71 migrants from
the driver on suspicion of Syria, Iraq and Afghani-
murder in one of Britain's stan who were found suf-
worst human-smuggling focated in the back of a
tragedies. refrigerated truck that was
Police were reconstructing abandoned on an Austrian
the final journey of the vic- highway close to the Hun-
tims as they tried to piece garian border.
together where they were Groups of migrants have
from and how they came repeatedly landed on
to be in England. English shores using small
"To put 39 people into a boats for the risky Chan-
locked metal container nel crossing, and migrants
shows a contempt for hu- are sometimes found in
man life that is evil," said Police escort the truck, that was found to contain a large number of dead bodies, as they move it the trunks of cars that dis-
Jackie Doyle-Price, a mem- from an industrial estate in Thurrock, south England, Wednesday Oct. 23, 2019. embark from the massive
ber of Parliament who rep- Associated Press ferries that link France and
resents the area where the lin, where it took a ferry to said spokesman Eric Van human traffickers would be England, but Wednesday's
truck was found. "The best Holyhead in Wales before Duyse. "It could be hours or prosecuted to the full ex- macabre find in an industri-
thing we can do in memory picking up the trailer at the days. We just don't know." tent of the law. al park was a reminder that
of those victims is to find dockside in England. As darkness approached "All such traders in human trafficking gangs are still
the perpetrators and bring The truck's driver — a Wednesday, a police mo- beings should be hunted profiting from the human
them to justice." 25-year-old man from torcycle escort slowly led down and brought to jus- trade. Police also were in-
The truck and the trailer Northern Ireland — was the Scania semitrailer out of tice," he said. vestigating a separate inci-
with the people inside ap- arrested on suspicion of the industrial park, taking it Ambulance workers dis- dent in which nine people
parently took separate murder. He has not been to a place where the bod- covered the bodies after were found traveling in the
circuitous journeys before charged and his name has ies could be recovered. The being called at 1:40 a.m. back of a truck in southeast
ending up on the grounds not been released. driver of the trailer wore a It was unclear who called England.
of the Waterglade Industri- The truck was registered full forensic suit and gloves the ambulance service. The National Crime Agen-
al Park in Grays, 25 miles (40 in Bulgaria to a company as he guided the massive No cause of death has cy said its specialists were
kilometers) east of London owned by an Irish citizen, vehicle in the impromptu been made public. Police working to "urgently iden-
on the River Thames. Bulgaria's Foreign Ministry cortege past journalists. said one victim appeared tify and take action against
British police said they be- said. It's point of origin was Britain remains an attrac- to be a teenager but gave any organized crime
lieve the container went unclear. The Belgian fed- tive destination for immi- no further details. groups who have played
from the port of Zeebrugge eral prosecutor's office said grants, even as the U.K. is The number of victims was a role in causing these
in Belgium to Purfleet, Eng- it has opened an investiga- negotiating its divorce from shocking, although it has deaths." It said in May that
land, where it arrived early tion. the European Union. In Par- become sadly common in the number of people be-
Wednesday. Police believe "We have no idea at the liament, Prime Minister Bo- recent years for small num- ing smuggled into Britain
the tractor traveled from moment how long the lorry ris Johnson put aside the bers of migrants to occa- via cargo trucks was on the
Northern Ireland to Dub- (truck) spent in Belgium," Brexit crisis and vowed that sionally be found dead in rise.q
PM Conte defends Italy’s intelligence contacts with US

By COLLEEN BARRY related to a U.S. investi- mentary intelligence com-
Associated Press gation into the origin of a mittee or legally discuss
MILAN (AP) — Italian Pre- probe into Russian election the request with any minis-
mier Giuseppe Conte said interference in the 2016 ter or political leader.
Wednesday U.S. Attor- election won by President Conte also empha-
ney General William Barr Trump. Conte said Barr’s sized that the Americans
was seeking information request arrived via normal showed no interest in the
about the activities of FBI diplomatic channels for activities of Italian intel-
agents assigned to Italy “a preliminary exchange ligence, and that the Ital-
in his meetings with Italian of information with our in- ian intelligence services
intelligence officials this telligence aimed at veri- were “completely extra-
summer. Conte insisted on fying activities of Ameri- neous to these events.”
the complete legitimacy can agents. This must be Conte said that Barr first
of both the meetings and clear.” Conte argued that held a “preliminary tech-
his own role, during a press Italian law gives the coun- nical” meeting with intelli-
conference after testifying try’s premier sole respon- gence officials in offices at
Italian Premier Giuseppe Conte sits before testifying behind behind closed doors to the sibility for responding to Rome’s Piazza Dante on
closed doors to COPASIR (Italian parliamentary intelligence
committee) about a meeting between United States Attorney parliamentary intelligence intelligence requests, and Aug. 15. That was followed
General William Barr and Italian intelligence, in Rome, committee in Rome. that he could not seek, up with another meet-
Wednesday, Oct. 23, 2019. The two meetings, in Au- for example, preliminary ing in the same offices on
Associated Press gust and in September, clearance from the parlia- Sept. 27.q