Essex lorry deaths: Vietnamese woman who sent texts to family confirmed as one of 39 victims

Pham Thi Tra My
Rebecca Speare-Cole2 November 2019
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A 26-year-old woman from Vietnam has been confirmed as one of the 39 people found dead in a lorry in Essex.

The brother of Pham Thi Tra My told the BBC last week she had paid £30,000 to be smuggled into Britain.

Pham Ngoc Tuan said the family has not been able to contact her since she sent a text on Tuesday night saying she was suffocating.

A translated WhatsApp message, which has been shared on social media, read: "I am really, really sorry, mum and dad, my trip to a foreign land has failed.

39 Bodies found in a container at Waterglade Industrial Park, Grays

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"I am dying, I can't breathe. I love you very much mum and dad. I am sorry, mother."

Her father Pham Van Thin told Tuoi Tre newspaper in Vietnam that his daughter was among those dead after receiving a call from England on Saturday.

"The news that my daughter died in England is true," he said. "It is very painful."

It comes as members of the Vietnamese community have gathered in London for a vigil in memory of the 39 people.

A vigil on Saturday evening was attended by more than one hundred people at the Church of the Holy Name and Our Lady of the Sacred Heart in east London.

Candles spelling out "39" were at the foot of the altar ahead of the service in the Catholic church, which has a large Vietnamese congregation.

Reverend Simon Nguyen said: "Today we gather to remember the people who have departed.

"These people who used to live among us, who dined with us. Today they are no longer with us."

Members of the congregation performed readings as part of the vigil and candles were lit.

On Friday, Essex Police announced that it believed all the victims were Vietnamese after previously stating it was thought they were Chinese.

A spokesperson for Vietnam's Ministry of Foreign Affairs called the incident a "serious humanitarian tragedy" in a statement on Saturday.

Post-mortem examinations are currently being carried out to identify the bodies of the 39 migrants were discovered in a lorry trailer in Grays, Essex, in the early hours of October 23.

An earlier statement released by police said they believed they had "identified families for some of the victims," but the identities cannot yet be released due to "confirmatory evidence," that is required by the coroner.

The driver of the lorry, 25-year-old Maurice Robinson, was charged with 39 counts of manslaughter.

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