INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
heading to Essex in Britain to verify reports that 39 people found dead in a truck were its nationals, the foreign ministry said
Thursday.The victims were discovered in a container on the back of a truck in Grays, east of London, on Wednesday, shortly after arriving by
ferry from Belgium.The local Essex Police force, which is working with immigration officials, said their initial priority was to try to
identify the 39 victims.The truck was moved Wednesday to a more secure location at nearby Tilbury docks so the bodies could be
removed.British media cited unidentifed sources as saying on Thursay that the victims, thought to be 38 adults and one teenager, were
Chinese nationals."The staff of the Chinese embassy in the UK is driving to the scene to verify this situation," the Chinese foreign
ministry said on its Weibo social media account."We read with heavy heart the reports about the death of 39 people in Essex, England," said
an unverified Twitter account regularly attributed to China's UK ambassador, Liu Xiaoming."We are in close contact with the British police
to seek clarification and confirmation of the relevant reports," it said.The shocking discovery comes almost two decades after the bodies of
58 Chinese people were discovered in a Dutch truck at the southeastern English port of Dover
Two others survived.In 2013, Spanish and French police dismantled a human trafficking ring that smuggled Chinese migrants into Europe and
the United States, charging up to 50,000 euros per person.The smugglers provided false identities and transport to take Chinese citizens to
the United States and countries such as Britain, Spain, France, Greece, Italy, Ireland and Turkey, police said at the time.(Except for the
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