I was wondering why they would call the BBC, of all places, to help get out of a truck in France, but then I realized that they probably didn’t speak French (they were, after all, being shipped to the UK). The BBC is probably the most-visible face of the UK to the rest of the world; if you wanted to call someone in Europe who speaks English, it’s probably one of the most-obvious places.
That is probably the reason. My first theory was, that they didn’t called the police, cause they was afraid of the police. So they could be sure that there will be some public interest, that forces the police to be carefull. On the other hand public interest may increase the chance not being deoported.
But your theory sounds trustworthier. Especially in such a situation, you probably don’t overthink it, but call for help.
you probably don’t overthink it, but call for help.
I’d imagine 112 would be the first place to call in that case. Surely they have someone there speaking English
What is 112? The caller was not in the lorry, and probably was not in France (assuming 112 is a French emergency number).
International emergency number, it should always connect to emergency services, even in places with a different emergency number
Thanks. I did not know it existed. And will never be able to remember it. But good to know it exists.
I know it’s a common joke that French people don’t speak English, but I’m sure their police surely would understand & speak English?
Sadly it’s not a joke, we’re really bad at English over here, and the police are no better (my guess would be they’re actually worse at it). I noticed that people under 30 are getting better though.
Most probably not. And if you’re refugees? You’ll have better chance with the BBC.
More seriously, we have serious problems with our police. There should be someone speaking English when you call, but probably not well, and 50% chance is he’s very racist. You also need to convince him that it’s a true emergency, or they won’t do anything.
50% chance is he’s very racist
That’s actually quite good, usually police are like 90% very racist.
That is true, but I wouldn’t want to bet my life on that! :D
I would - but only because I am not African
I dunno, but I just Googled for both the National Police and the Paris police department to look for contact information. In both cases, Google sent me to the English language Wikipedia page (which linked to it), andt the websites themselves were only French.
considers
I guess maybe one could call the French embassy in Vietnam. They could presumably do Vietnamese or something.
EDIT: Ironically, I did almost the same thing the other day. I noticed, from an article, that a number of shops in Ukraine last winter that had lost power due to Russian missiles were running space heaters on diesel generators. That wastes a lot of diesel – there are inexpensive Chinese diesel heaters that could be used instead. I went trying to find some sort of contact person in the Ukrainian government involved with energy who might be a reasonable person to drop a note to, but there’s only so much in English. I eventually wound up trying to contact a charity in the UK that had been working to heat Ukrainian homes that had been impacted by explosions instead, hoping that they could direct me to a relevant party. And I wasn’t in the position of having a frantic, suffocating family member calling me on the other end – I was more willing to spend time searching.
Some, yes, but far from all.
You could of course just call the British police since Interpol exists.
Although the BBC probably would be more effective than the British police.
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.
The caller wasn’t one of those trapped (all of whom were women). Presumably he was their emergency contact and he called everyone he could think of who might be able to help, including this journalist.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
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.
One video showed a dark compartment, and stacked up to the roof were cardboard boxes containing fruit, leaving only a few dozen centimetres of space for them to sit on the floor.
At the same time, a reporter for the French newspaper Le Monde in London was also informed and he immediately alerted his colleague at the Paris editorial office that specialised in immigration.
We gathered all the information we needed, and continuously sent vehicle location updates to Pham Cao Phong, a freelance journalist in Paris, as well as the BBC News team in Europe and French police.
At about 17:00 local time (16:00 BST), French prosecutor Laetitia Francart in Villefranche-sur-Saône reported that the vehicle turned out to be from Lithuania and that the driver was under investigation.
The original article contains 1,012 words, the summary contains 184 words. Saved 82%. I’m a bot and I’m open source!
The women told investigators that the driver wasn’t involved, “saying that they climbed abord the truck thinking they were going to England because of the Irish registration plates,”
I don’t think that would have worked, but they’d have maybe gotten to a country that doesn’t have any border checks with the UK.
The six women were detained for being in France illegally before being released. Four were given 30 days to leave the country.
Via Calais, I expect.
Why, after the tragedy of 39 deaths in Essex in 2019, are there still young women from Vietnam getting into the back of a lorry to cross the border? I can’t find any definitive answer.
Because all safe routes have been closed off and people are desperate? C’mon, how does a journalist who has covered these stories not know that?
