In 2019 39 Vietnamese immigrants smothered to death in a cooled container during their journey to Britain.

They had gone via northern France to Belgium before crossing the English Channel

Today a migrant -trafficking trial opened in France.

The bodies of the migrants were discovered inside the closed unit at a port near London in October 2019.

The defendants are from different nationalities.

Two ringleaders of the operation — one Romanian and one British — were convicted at a trial in 2021 in Britain and sentenced to 27 and 20 years in prison correspondingly.

15 defendants in the French trial face up to 10 years while 4 defendants are charged with involuntary homicide.

12 to 20 years’ verdict was issued against 2 defendants.

“A Belgian court handed a 15-year term to a Vietnamese man for heading the local cell of the network.”

in accordance with phone intercepts the group referred to the migrants as “goods” or “chickens”.

The public prosecutor told the court that the defendants were driven by money.

AFPP-e—r