Please refresh the page and retry. Within the pitch black confines of the refrigerator unit which was soon to be her grave, and that of 38 fellow migrants, the year-old wrote to her mother what would in effect be her last will and testament. I'm dying bcoz I can't breath I am sorry, Mom". This is understood to be a common technique used by migrants to ensure the authorities know where to repatriate their bodies, in case they die during what is all too often a perilous journey.
Her younger brother, Pham Manh Cuong, said his sister had managed to fly from China to France earlier this month. She called us when she reached each destination. The first attempt she made to cross the border to the UK was 19 October, but she got caught, and turned back. Determined to make a better life for herself in the UK Ms Pham again put herself in the hands of people smugglers.
They have not heard from her since. B y this time the container unit in which she had been travelling had arrived at Zeebrugge and was waiting to be loaded on to a UK-bound ferry. It arrived at Purfleet Docks at Mr Robinson left Purfleet at 1. H e is thought to have contacted the ambulance service at 1. Officers had previously briefed the media that they believed all the bodies in the lorry where Chinese nationals.
They also initially briefed that the container unit in which the bodies were found had come from Hollyhead, when it was only the cab that had done so. P olice indications the dead were Chinese appears to have led to a diplomatic row with Beijing, presenting Chinese state media with the opportunity to criticise the UK authorities for failing to prevent a repeat of a similar grisly scenario, when 58 Chinese citizens were found dead in a container in Dover, suffocated to death, in It smacks of ineptitude and lack of experience on behalf of those involved in Essex.
Kent police [who were involved in the case] will have experience. But Deputy Chief Constable Pippa Mills of Essex Police said: "We owe it to those who have died to get this investigation right and speculation is not helpful. It may in fact hinder our investigation and its progress. As such I will not be drawn on any further detail until formal identification processes approved by Her Majesty's Coroner have taken place. V ietnamese community groups in Britain said they had been inundated with inquiries from people here who fear the dead migrants found in the truck might include family members.
