The Route from China

BBC: On 18 June 2000 a lorry was stopped at the port of Dover, UK. When the door was opened, two men staggered out. They were the only survivors of a consignment of people from China. Fifty-four men and four women died.Earlier that day they had been packed into the container lorry, tomatoes had been piled in front to conceal their presence. The lorry driver then closed the only air vent to make sure that no noise would be heard from the lorry."The majority were young people, 19 to 29 years old," said Detective Superintendent Denis McGookin, the police officer in charge of the investigation."But some were much older. These were probably minders employed by the snakeheads to keep the others under control during the journey."The survivors were able to tell their story to the police. Each had paid £20,000 to travel to the UK. The journey was a long and tortuous one, organised by local groups known as snakeheads in China."They started off by having ordinary Chinese passports," said DS McGookin."They flew from Fujian to Beijing. They were met by other snakeheads who flew them on to Belgrade. There they were stripped of their Chinese passports and given forged South Korean ones."The journey continued by plane from Belgrade to Hungary and Paris, and then by train to Belgium, and into Holland. There they were taken to warehouses in Rotterdam, rested for a short time and then loaded into the container.It is a well travelled route. But according to Whah Piow Tan, a London solicitor who is himself a political refugee from Singapore, the idea that this is the work of highly organised criminal gangs is overstated. "Snakehead is a generic term used to describe those who lead economic migrants out of China. It is not necessarily organised crime. The organised part is arranging the false passports."He told how family members and others who have already travelled the route and have the contacts, set up travel agencies or some other shop front and organise the journey.He added that people will travel whatever the price, whatever the risk, and the only way to stamp it out is to take a more liberal attitude to allowing such workers into Europe or America."They will not stop leaving China. They have been leaving for 100 years. This tragedy did not discourage them, but it will make them more cautious in checking out which syndicate they use," he said."By the time this incident took place many thousands were already in Italy, Hungary, and Eastern Europe - waiting to come to the UK or the United States."But what about the families of the 58 who died? The police have a video following their investigation into the deaths. The scenes in the lorry are tragic, bodies tumbled about; half dressed, strewn around with boxes of red tomatoes.There is another clip, taken in China. Families have gathered to identify the dead.Some are giving blood samples for DNA testing. Others are being shown packs of photographs - the last record of their son or daughter, sister or brother - ghostly photos taken where the bodies were laid out in the Dover port customs shed. Their grief is overwhelming.For the police it was a successful investigation. The driver of the lorry, Perry Wacker, was arrested on the spot and sent to prison for 14 years for manslaughter.He claimed he only knew about a consignment of tomatoes. But the same DNA tests which helped the police identify the dead helped convict Wacker. DNA linked him to the warehouse where the Chinese immigrants were held before being loaded on to the container.