Six women have been rescued from the back of a lorry in France, after the BBC helped track them down and alert the police.
The four Vietnamese and two Iraqis, thought to be migrants, were trapped inside, panicking and struggling to breathe. One of them spoke to the BBC from inside the lorry.
The BBC then helped to contact the police, who stopped the lorry.
French police have arrested the lorry driver.
They have also opened an investigation into a suspected human trafficking operation.
Here’s the story of what happened.
At around midday on Wednesday, my phone screen lit up. It was a message that read: “There are some people who crossed the border from France to England in a refrigerated van.”
Before I could finish reading the message, a call came in.
“Are you in Europe? Please help, it’s urgent,” a panicked voice rang out.
I felt cold all over. The tragic story of 39 Vietnamese migrants found dead after suffocating in a lorry trailer back in 2019 in Essex was still fresh in my mind.
I didn’t know who the caller was, but believed he knew me from when I covered the Essex lorry deaths, as a lot of Vietnamese people approached me that time.
I asked the caller a few questions, but quickly became frustrated at not being able to get the information I needed.
This is what I learnt – there was a group of about six people hiding in the lorry, its licence plate number was unknown, as was its location and the direction it was heading in.
All I knew at this point, from what the caller had told me, was that the vehicle was in France, but seemed to have turned around and was no longer going towards its original destination – the border to England.
Source: bbc.com
