Migrant crisis: people smuggler jailed for 12 years seven months after migrants died in 'unimaginable anguish'

A Romanian people smuggler has been jailed for 12 years and seven months for his part in the manslaughter of 39 men, women and children, who suffocated in a lorry trailer in Essex.

The Vietnamese nationals were found dead in the container, which had been transported by ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Purfleet early on 23 October, 2019. Marius Mihai Draghici, 50, fled the country after the bodies were discovered, but was detained by police in Romania last August and returned to the UK.

On Tuesday (11 July) he appeared at the Old Bailey to be sentenced, after last month pleading guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to assist unlawful immigration.

Justice Garnham said Draghici had become involved in a people smuggling conspiracy making “astonishing profits out of the exploitation of people desperate to get to the UK”. Conditions inside the container where the 39 victims died were “unspeakable”, he said, with “people trapped inside the trailer with no ventilation and no way of getting out”.

Some of the victims had attempted to make a hole in the trailer with a metal pole with no success, and the judge said he had also heard the “pitiful audio recordings” of those trapped inside “reporting they could not breathe and a growing recognition they were going to die there”.

Prosecutor Bill Emlyn Jones KC said the victims had suffocated in an air-tight container en route across the Channel. “Their last hours must have entailed unimaginable suffering and anguish," he said.

“The prosecution case is that Draghici became party to a sophisticated, long-running and highly profitable conspiracy to smuggle illegal migrants to the United Kingdom, in the back of lorries, in a deliberate and intentional breach of border control.”

The defendant was recruited by fellow Romanian Gheorghe Nica - who was previously tried and convicted of involvement in the deaths - Mr Emlyn Jones said, and that Nica and Draghici gave the lorry driver his instructions on the night of the tragic run.

Draghici was also present at an earlier meeting on 19 October, when Nica delivered a “very substantial payment” to haulier boss Ronan Hughes after collecting money from “Fong” - a Vietnamese organiser.

“We accept that the role played in the conspiracy by Nica was more significant than that of Draghici," the prosecutor added, but said that Draghici was below his peer in the operation's "pecking order", and played the role of "something of a righthand man to Mr Nica".

The court heard how migrants were loaded into the trailers of lorries that travelled - unaccompanied - on ferries to the United Kingdom. The trailers were collected and driven to Collingwood Farm, in a remote part of Orsett, in Essex. From there, the migrants were unloaded and driven on to their ultimate destination.

In victim impact statements read in court, victims’ families described feeling “sad and hopeless” at their loss while coping with crippling debt from borrowing thousands of pounds to pay for their loved-ones’ travel.

Nguyen Huy Hung, 15, one of the youngest victims, had been on his way to live with his parents in the UK and work as a hairdresser. His father said they were “very shocked” and “trembling” after hearing what happened on social media.

“We did not believe it was the truth until we saw his body with our own eyes… We felt numb and that feeling lasted for many weeks later," he said.

Married couple Tran Hai Loc and Nguyen Thi Van were found lying side by side in the container. The court heard they had paid US $7,000 to travel to Hungary to work as fruit pickers, but told their families on 18 October that their plans had changed.

In mitigation, Gillian Jones KC said Draghici was “shocked and horrified with what occurred” and had struggled to come to terms with the enormity of it.