Current Events
Sikh-Afghans:
A Desperate Escape to Freedom
ARTHUR MARTIN & STEPHEN JOHNS [The Daily Mail] and STEPH COCKROFT & WILLS ROBINSON [MailOnline]
Moment 35 Afghan Sikhs were freed from 'metal coffin': Screaming stowaways are helped by police who are now hunting international network of people smugglers who brought them to Britain
International manhunt continues for traffickers who crammed 35 immigrants into container bound for Port of Tilbury-
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Disturbing footage showed migrants crawling helplessly on the floor, while harrowing screams echo around docks
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13 children, including a baby, and adults up to the age of 72 - including man in his 40s who died - were among group
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Police have begun to question some of the immigrants - Belgian officials 'very hopeful' they can track down driver
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Officers have said it would have been 'impossible' for group to have been loaded into the container at Zeebrugge
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Spokesman Peter De Waele said each container is captured on camera and seals are under strict security controls
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Essex Police have confirmed all of those inside the unit were Sikhs from Afghanistan - two remain in hospital today
An international manhunt was continuing last night for the traffickers and lorry driver who tried to smuggle 35 desperate Afghan Sikhs into Britain in a shipping container that became a ‘metal coffin’.
Full details of the horrifying incident have emerged in a video of the moment 34 of the migrants – including 13 children – were rescued.
The footage shows them weak and confused after their wailing and banging alerted rescuers at the port of Tilbury, Essex, on Saturday morning.
They were pulled sobbing from the sealed container in which they had been left to suffocate, but not before one of the migrants died.
Others could be seen sitting dazed on the pavement as paramedics treated the most severely injured.
Most of the survivors were discharged from hospitals yesterday and taken to a reception centre where they were questioned by police and Border Force officials through interpreters.
Callous people-traffickers had crammed the migrants – all from Afghanistan’s beleaguered Sikh community – into the container packed with crates of cleaning chemicals and put it on a P&O cargo ferry from the Belgium port of Zeebrugge on Friday night before fleeing.
Police have launched a murder inquiry and are working with Interpol in a bid to track down the gang.
Officers in Belgium are studying CCTV images of the lorry in an attempt to find the driver to establish if he was involved in the operation or was unaware of his human cargo.
Moment immigrants are released from Tilbury shipping container
This footage shows the dramatic moment that 35 immigrants - including 12 children and a baby - were released from a shipping containing yesterday morning, after being discovered at the Port of Tilbury, Essex
In the disturbing footage, the immigrants - now confirmed as Afghan Sikhs - can be seen crawling helplessly around the floor, while harrowing screams echo around the dock
A Belgian police spokesman said it was impossible for the migrants to have climbed into the container while it was sitting in the port as it was there for only an hour and the area is covered extensively by CCTV.
ECHO OF TOMATO LORRY TRAGEDY
This
incident has chilling echoes of a tragedy 14 years ago in which 58
Chinese stowaways died on the way from Belgium to Britain.
Customs
officers discovered the bodies of 54 men and four women in the back of a
tomato lorry which arrived in Dover on June 18, 2000. The migrants had
suffocated after their air vent was closed.
Driver Perry Wacker was jailed for 14 years for manslaughter.
‘It
was around 6pm so it wasn’t dark,’ he said. ‘We think that the
possibility [is that] the victims were already on the container before
it was put down in Zeebrugge.’
He
said investigators have been combing CCTV and are 'very hopeful' that
they can track down the driver and company of the vehicle that deposited
the container.
Mr De Waele added each container is captured on camera and their seals are subject to 'very strict' controls.
His officers were working closely with Essex police, he added, and he described tackling human trafficking as a 'priority' in Belgium.
One report
claimed yesterday that the stowaways spent nine days locked inside
before they were found. Police believe a second container with 12 people
inside is still to be found, the report claimed.
Zeebrugge has become a popular port for people smugglers because of its size and regular cargo ferry crossings to Britain.
The number of ‘clandestine illegal entry attempts’ by migrants trying to get to the UK via ports in Belgium and France increased last year to 18,000 from about 11,000 the year before, according UK Border Agency figures.
Police and border officials are seen trying to help the immigrants, as several collapse onto the floor, letting out desperate cries for help
Essex police have confirmed the group included nine men and eight women aged between 18 and 72, as well as 13 children, aged between one and 12 years old
Thirty of those found in the container have been released from local hospitals while four of the remaining victims continue to be treated at South Hospital. They are expected to be discharged by tomorrow
The alarm was raised some half an hour later when the desperate pleas for help were heard.
An immediate search was ordered of the other 50 containers on the ferry in case any more migrants were on board.
Superintendent
Trevor Roe, of Essex Police, said: ‘We have had a good deal of help
from partners within the local Sikh community in the Tilbury area to
ensure that these poor people, who would have been through a horrific
ordeal, are supported in terms of their religious and clothing needs.’
Stephen Metcalfe, Conservative MP for South Basildon and East Thurrock, said: ‘The fact that so many people appear to have travelled so far and are so desperate to get into the UK – either on their own or being trafficked – is really sad.’
Dock workers made the shocking discovery at 6.37am on Saturday morning after they heard 'screaming and banging' coming from inside one of the ship's containers
Migrants in France and Belgium typically pay gangs about £1,500 each to be smuggled into Britain.
They have often travelled from their home countries by land via Turkey before being herded into UK-bound containers.
Alternatively, some are flown to Moscow on fake visas before being driven across Eastern Europe.
Supt Roe added: 'Now they are well enough, our officers and colleagues from the Border Force will be speaking to them via interpreters so we can piece together what happened and how they came to be in the container.
'We now understand that they are from Afghanistan and are of the Sikh faith. Members of the Sikh community in Thurrock, Essex, are helping support the victims alongside the Red Cross.'
Some 32 people had been released from local hospitals by last night
to a reception centre at the Port of Tilbury.
The two remaining victims were continuing to be treated at Southend Hospital today.
A Belgian police spokesman said it would be 'impossible' for the illegal immigrants to have boarded the vessel (pictured at Tilbury Docks yesterday) at Zeebrugge
Two police officers stand next to an ambulance at the gates of Tilbury Docks yesterday morning after dock workers made the shocking discovery
An ambulance enters the Essex port following the incident. The stowaways were treated for severe dehydration and hypothermia after they were found
[Photo: The A&E department of Basildon University Hospital in Essex was closed off as a 'decontamination area' as the suspected immigrants were treated.]
[Courtesy: & &
August 18, 2014
Conversation about this article
1: Inderjeet Kaur (Birmingham, United Kingdom), August 18, 2014, 8:36 AM.
U-R-G-E-N-T ... we need to open our hearts and homes to these brothers and sisters of ours in dire need of succour. I trust United Sikhs and Khalsa Aid are already moving heaven and earth to help!
2: Jagtar Singh (Kanpur, India), August 18, 2014, 9:56 AM.
Man's inhumanity to Man ... never a shortage of it in this world, ever!
3: Harinder Singh (Punjab), August 18, 2014, 12:31 PM.
Non-Muslims will always be "kafir" for fundamentalist Muslims.
4: Manbir Banwait (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada), August 18, 2014, 5:49 PM.
I cannot imagine how awful life must have been for these folks. Hopefully a speedy recovery and permanent settlement in the UK is in their future. I wish them nothing but the best of luck. Perhaps in 20 years' time this whole saga can be looked back at as a minor hiccup in their success in the UK.
5: Bhai Harbans Lal (Dallas, Texas, USA), August 19, 2014, 12:40 AM.
Sikh-Afghans are committed Sikhs full of life and love for their Gurus' mission of love and service. It is painful to see them escaping this way but it is better to escape alive than to give up on life and accept slavery of the fanatic Muslims. I am sure the Sikh community in the UK will take care of them. We must be thankful for British generosity to help these refugees to be alive and regaining their health. In time they will be very productive British citizens.
6: N Singh (Canada), August 19, 2014, 3:06 AM.
This is so heartbreaking. It makes me so sad to think that these Sikhs must have been so desperate to escape from Afghanistan. It also makes me sad to think that 70 Sikhs are currently in the US detention centers seeking political asylum. It would appear that Sikhs are desperate to leave India and its surrounding areas because the situation has become so difficult and dangerous. If we had our own homeland none of this would be happening. We would be safe. Instead, we have this. For the first time in my life I am grateful to Waheguru for the opportunities He has given me to live my life in the West. Despite all the difficulties of being a visible minority in a predominantly white country it is still 'heaven' compared to the hell that is India today.
7: Kaala Singh (Punjab), August 19, 2014, 2:37 PM.
It is really sad to see our people trapped in dangerous lands escaping like this and putting their lives in danger. All Sikhs should have the right to come to their homeland in Punjab, but unfortunately that is not the case as our homeland is neither welcoming nor in our control.Thank you, Great Britain, for providing succour to our people.
8: Manbir Banwait (Fort McMurray, Alberta, Canada), August 19, 2014, 3:03 PM.
The 70 Sikhs in US detention centers from India should not be equated to these Sikh-Afghan. Economic migrants abusing the refugee system are not the same as those fleeing religious persecution and death. Present-day India, though still troublesome for Sikhs, is not what it was in the mid 80's and 90's.
9: N Singh (Canada), August 20, 2014, 2:29 AM.
@#8: I am sorry but I beg to differ. The 70 Sikhs in the US are seeking political asylum because they have been harassed by the Indian police for their political and religious affiliations. Indian police have continued to harass their families in India. Nothing has changed in present-day India for the Sikhs. Just this week a Sikh named Jasvir Singh was abducted by the Punjab police based on his political and religious affiliations. No doubt they will build a case against him for 'terrorism'. Also it has taken months for Bhai Jagtar Singh Hawara to get medical treatment in jail. You are either out of touch with reality or seeking to minimize the crimes of the Indian state. There is no difference between the Taliban or the Government of India in their persecution of the Sikhs, only a matter of degree at any given time.