A missing Vietnamese woman who texted her mother to say “I can’t breathe” is feared to be among 39 people found dead in a refrigerated trailer in Essex.
Pham Thi Tra My, 26, sent a message saying “I’m dying” at the time the lorry was on its way from Belgium to the UK on Tuesday night. She has not been heard from since.
Ms Pham was known to have planned to attempt to travel to England, according to a human rights group in contact with her family. Her brother told the BBC they had paid £30,000 to people smugglers and her last known location had been in Belgium.
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Hoa Nghiem, a Hanoi-based activist with Human Rights Space, said the family was worried their daughter was among the victims as “the last dying text from her was coincidently in time”.
She shared a screenshot and a translation of the message, which read: “I’m sorry Mom. My path to abroad doesn’t succeed. Mom, I love you so much! I’m dying bcoz I can’t breath…I’m from Nghen, Can Loc, Ha Tinh, Vietnam… I am sorry, Mom”.
The text was sent at 4.28am on Wednesday in Vietnam, the screen shot shows. In Britain that would have been 10.28pm, at which time the trailer was in transit between Zebrugge and Purrfleet.
The bodies were found just over three hours later.
An Essex Police spokeswoman told The Independent officers had received no information indicating whether Ms Pham was among the victims. The force has previously said all 31 men and eight women found dead on the lorry were believed to be Chinese nationals.
The Vietnamese Embassy in London confirmed it had contacted police about a missing woman.
A spokesman for the embassy said they had been contacted by a family in Vietnam who claimed their daughter had been missing “since the lorry was found”. He added: “We have contacted Essex Police and we are waiting for an answer.”
Ms Pham had travelled to China and planned to England through France, according to Ms Nghiem, who added: “Our contact is getting more alerts that there could be more Vietnamese people in the truck.”
The BBC said it knew of two other Vietnamese nationals – a 26-year-old man and a 19-year-old woman – who were missing. Smugglers had returned money to the families of suspected families, the broadcaster reported.
A man and a woman, both aged 38 and from Warrington, Cheshire, were arrested on suspicion of 39 counts of manslaughter and people trafficking on Friday.
The driver of the truck, 25-year-old Mo Robinson from Northern Ireland, remains in custody after he was being arrested on suspicion of murder on Wednesday.
Mimi Vu, an expert on trafficking of Vietnamese young people to Europe, said Ms Pham’s texts appeared to be authentic. She told The Guardian: “She writes her name and where she is from, which is very important, to tell people where she should be buried.”
She added people were sometimes given fake Chinese passports when they were trafficked through China.
Some 702 Vietnamese people were referred to UK authorities as suspected victims of trafficking and modern slavery last year, more than any other foreign country except Albania.
