39 dead bodies found in the back of a lorry

[Mastermind]

Initial reports of the lorry coming via Ireland look like a lot of rubbish.
I agree with DA it's outrageous that the press leapt straight at the migrant angle when it's far more likely they are refugees or seeking asylum or being trafficked.
Excuse my ignorance but do lorry drivers check their cargo before driving off or do they just hitch the cab to the trailer and drive off?

If they have entered the country in the back of a lorry they are illegal immigrants I’m afraid.

The lorry driving is an interesting one. I’ve never driven one but I would have thought if you had an empty trailer and got back in after a stop there would be someway of telling weight-wise if 39 people had jumped in the back.

[ICTChris]

The man arrested has been named as Mo Robinson, 25, from Portadown. The Bulgarian government have confirmed that the truck was registered in Bulgaria but they said it’s unlikely the people inside are Bulgarians.

[djchapsticks]

Saying on BBC that it appears to have been a refrigerated container with temperatures of down to -25C.

So if they've not suffocated, they've surely frozen to death. Either way, the poor fuckers stood no chance. Given the lorry itself was registered Bulgarian and there are massive human trafficking operations that run through Hungary and Bulgaria, it's very possible these poor people were commodities to someone else rather than people jumping ship for a new life.

[welshbairn]

5 minutes ago, ICTChris said:

The man arrested has been named as Mo Robinson, 25, from Portadown. The Bulgarian government have confirmed that the truck was registered in Bulgaria but they said it’s unlikely the people inside are Bulgarians.

C4 news saying the truck was likely leased in NI.

[jamamafegan]

Apparently the boy arrested has been released without charge.

[RH33]

1 hour ago, Adam101 said:

Initial reports of the lorry coming via Ireland look like a lot of rubbish.

I agree with DA it's outrageous that the press leapt straight at the migrant angle when it's far more likely they are refugees or seeking asylum or being trafficked.

Excuse my ignorance but do lorry drivers check their cargo before driving off or do they just hitch the cab to the trailer and drive off?

I’ve just asked a lorry driver I know that very question.

[Cerberus]

9 people found in another truck in Kent. Unluckily for Mastermind they were all alive.

[SweeperDee]

13 minutes ago, jamamafegan said:

Apparently the boy arrested has been released without charge.

Where are you seeing that?

[Melanius Mullarkey]

3 minutes ago, Cerberus said:

9 people found in another truck in Kent. Unluckily for Mastermind they were all alive.

Just as he was on his way down to weigh the lorry as well.

[Benjamin_Nevis]

If they have entered the country in the back of a lorry they are illegal immigrants I’m afraid.

Well that's ok then. What an absolute p***k.

[Dee Man]

1 hour ago, Arch Stanton said:

I'm no expert in English Law and so I ask is murder an approprite charge in this instance? Did the driver know there were people in his trailer and if so did he know they were going to die ?

Doesn't murder include an element of intentionality?

Exactly what I thought. The Daily Mail has a headline of MASS MURDER already. I suspect the charges will be multiple manslaughters. I don't suppose a MASS MANSLAUGHTER headline would have quite the same appeal to their readership though. 

31 minutes ago, djchapsticks said:

Saying on BBC that it appears to have been a refrigerated container with temperatures of down to -25C.

So if they've not suffocated, they've surely frozen to death. Either way, the poor fuckers stood no chance. Given the lorry itself was registered Bulgarian and there are massive human trafficking operations that run through Hungary and Bulgaria, it's very possible these poor people were commodities to someone else rather than people jumping ship for a new life.

Refrigerated trailers have two fridges inside - one at the front and one at the back. They run independently of each other for transporting goods of differing temperature with insulated pads separating the loads. Imagining for talking sake that frozen goods were being transported on this lorry then they could have made a separate area for the people they were attempting to smuggle.

Human traffickers are obviously pretty ruthless gangsters but I can't imagine them putting these people in a freezer, knowingly sending them to their deaths, and even though the *whatever word isn't deemed offensive for the people presumably attempting to move country* are obviously desperate, I can't see anyone willingly going inside a freezer. 

That ends todays lesson on how to transport frozen/chilled/ambient/human goods. 

[Dee Man]

31 minutes ago, RH33 said:

I’ve just asked a lorry driver I know that very question.

You should always open the back doors of your trailer to check your load before you leave the depot as you are responsible for ensuring you've got the correct stock, but if there's anything further up the trailer hidden away then there's no way you know it's there until it's getting unloaded. Or it shouts. 

I know a guy who took a double decker trailer of Lightbodys cakes to Stockport from Lanarkshire - approximately 4hrs journey - except he didn't. He opened the doors when he got to his destination and it was completely empty because he'd hooked up to the wrong trailer and hadn't checked. Not quite as bad as finding a load of dead people but an immediate dismissal for him nonetheless.

[Priti priti priti Patel]

5 minutes ago, MixuFixit said:

Could they have been poisoned by a frozen leek then?

Fixed your spelling but I think it's unlikely.

[NJ2]

Probably illegal immigrants, probably seeking asylum, probably refugees, definitely fucking people who have suffered an absolutely tragic end. Posts suggesting they don’t care because the background or point scoring because someone who supports a different football team made a heartless remark can f**k off. Imagine being in the scenario where things are so desperate (or worse, you’re forced against your will) to get in the back of a lorry and hope for the best. Tragic state of affairs.

[Hedgecutter]

7 hours ago, DA Baracus said:

I really dislike people being described as a ‘migrant’ or ‘immigrant’, thus my earlier post.

Whilst technically accurate it dehumanises people I think, or at least paints them as something less. Years of right wing media propaganda have meant that such terms are covered in connotations, all negative.

Exactly why you never hear foreign-based Brits referred to as 'immigrants' within their new country of choice, only ever 'expats'.

Immigrant is used for everything else, unless of course they're white and speak English as their first language.  The latter are always here for sound reasons, are treated as 'one of our type'  and are simply referred to as either Irish, American, Canadian, NZer or an Australian.  The rest?  Bloody immigrants (possibly 'Eastern European').

Edited October 23, 2019 by Hedgecutter

[BFTD]

12 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Exactly why you never hear foreign-based Brits referred to as 'immigrants' within their new country of choice, only ever 'expats'.

Immigrant is used for everything else, unless of course they're white and speak English as their first language.  The latter are always here for sound reasons, are treated as 'one of our type'  and are simply referred to as either Irish, American, Canadian, NZer or an Australian.  The rest?  Bloody immigrants (possibly 'Eastern European').

I wonder if it's the same everywhere. I was in the US when the World Trade Center collapsed, and there was a lot of vitriol against "immigrants". It didn't seem to occur to most folk that I was part of that group too, but when it did, someone would inevitably say, "not you, you're on our side". I'd have been crapping myself to have been a non-white foreigner around that time; some of the advice we were being given was shocking.

[welshbairn]

1 hour ago, Dee Man said:

You should always open the back doors of your trailer to check your load before you leave the depot as you are responsible for ensuring you've got the correct stock, but if there's anything further up the trailer hidden away then there's no way you know it's there until it's getting unloaded. Or it shouts. 

I know a guy who took a double decker trailer of Lightbodys cakes to Stockport from Lanarkshire - approximately 4hrs journey - except he didn't. He opened the doors when he got to his destination and it was completely empty because he'd hooked up to the wrong trailer and hadn't checked. Not quite as bad as finding a load of dead people but an immediate dismissal for him nonetheless.

Could you not tell by the weight you're pulling, maybe not cakes but 39 people?

[Dee Man]

17 minutes ago, Hedgecutter said:

Exactly why you never hear foreign-based Brits referred to as 'immigrants' within their new country of choice, only ever 'expats'.

Immigrant is used for everything else, unless of course they're white and speak English as their first language.  The latter are always here for sound reasons, are treated as 'one of our type'  and are simply referred to as either Irish, American, Canadian, NZer or an Australian.  The rest?  Bloody immigrants (possibly 'Eastern European').

I'm guessing most other countries will have phrases to refer to their citizens that have decided to move abroad the same way Brits refer to expats.

I think people are are over-thinking the use of the word  immigrant/migrant in this context. 

How else should we refer to people who attempt to move abroad for a better life? It's surely far less demeaning or dehumanising than illegal immigrant, asylum seeker or refugee? It literally just lets the reader know that it's people from another country. I don't see how anyone can take anything sinister from it. In other contexts yes, but not here. 

[BFTD]

6 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Could you not tell by the weight you're pulling, maybe not cakes but 39 people?

I was wondering how, for four hours, nobody noticed that the container full of cakes was still sitting in the loading bay.

Completely unfamiliar with the dynamics of long-distance haulage, but you'd have thought there'd be some sort of supervisor kicking about. But, considering that dozens of folk can hop aboard trucks whenever they fancy, perhaps not  

[Dee Man]

13 minutes ago, welshbairn said:

Could you not tell by the weight you're pulling, maybe not cakes but 39 people?

It would really depend on the horsepower of your truck. Some struggle up hills with a relatively light load, like maybe a 400, but if you've got a 750hp V8 you're not feeling anything. Most trucks are around 40 tons fully laden so 39 people is pretty light compared to that.