Vietnamese smuggling networks: ‘Brussels as the last stopover’
Brussels taxi drivers and Anderlecht safehouses play a crucial role in the death of 39 Vietnamese in a refrigerated container in Essex. The latest followed the drama and which is still ongoing, shows how our capital is an important hub in several months-long journeys with the United Kingdom as the final destination. “Brussels is not an annex in this case: it is a central point.”
On 23 October 2019, the lifeless bodies of 39 Vietnamese, including three minors, were found in a refrigerated truck in the southern English county of Essex. It soon became apparent that the container had left Zeebrugge the day before and was part of the illegal smuggling network. A Joint Investigation Team involving both Belgium, Ireland, the United Kingdom and France was initiated. Anderlecht, Schaerbeek, Sint-Jans-Molenbeek, Sint-Pieters-Leeuw, Ganshoren, Brussels, Uccle and Etterbeek. These culminated in an issue and December 16, the debates of which were held on 15 and a total of 23 accused themselves of their part in the smuggling of people. The process and what preceded it showed that people sometimes traveled for months on end, using many different routes. Brussels was very often an important link in their journey.
“Victim N.*, for example, was transported from Paris to Brussels the evening before the truck left,” says lawyer Luc Arnou, who serves as legal counsel for the Federal Migration Center Myria and the non-profit association PAG-ASA, which is involved in the civil party case. has stated. “N. still had her mobile phone with her. From her mobile data, the researchers found that her last moment in Vietnam was dated August 30, 2019. Afterwards, the woman was located in Myanmar, Turkey, Greece, Malta, Spain and France.” From France was eventually sent to Brussels by a Brussels taxi driver, later on 22 October 2019 was put on the deadly transport in Bierne in Northern France.
The odyssey that N. undertook was not exceptional. The smuggled people in Europe via all kinds of routes – often via Russia. While they were in Europe, the reports were held in safehouses run by Vietnamese individuals, whether or not they were illegally in the country. In Belgium there were several safehouses, located in Brussels. “Belgium is small and many access roads via highways and air traffic,” said Sarah De Hovre of PAG-ASA, which took in at least three underage Vietnamese victims of the smuggling in 2019. “That’s why Brussels is often the hub and transit location is chosen. It is also a cosmopolitan city with many networks, also illegal. Sometimes the stay is very short, but sometimes they stay for months in Brussels and are employed in nail salons of restaurants to pay for part of their journey.”
During the proceedings, the addresses in Ninoofseweg and Gespstraat in Anderlecht were mainly discussed, but locations in Schaerbeek and Ixelles were also referred to. For example, the investigation showed that an apartment on the second floor in Ninoofsesteenweg had been used to temporarily receive migrants since at least 10 July 2018. “The interrogation of T.*, a victim of a failed transport, showed that this man had been found in the safe house in the Ninoofsesteenweg, where Vietnamese people with about ten others,” said Arnou. “They were not allowed to make noise and the organization decided who left.”
The owner of the pizzeria on the ground floor testified that he had long seen Vietnamese people, who got around in taxis, coming in and out at the cost of four out of five. At a certain moment T. was allowed to leave for Bruges, but he was hit by a car. He was first placed in the bushes, but nevertheless by another victim on the train to Brussels. In August 2018, the Brussels police found T. at the entrance of her car park in Rue de France. The man was not wearing a left shoe and his left leg was broken.
By taxi to the loading place
Not only were the safehouses located in Brussels, the taxi drivers who transported the Vietnamese were also present from Brussels, selected from Belgian of Moroccan nationality. They transported from locations in Europe to Brussels and from Brussels to the loading places. The morning of October 22, 2019, four drivers were sent to Bierne in northern France, where the Vietnamese would arrive at the refrigerated container. The four taxi drivers come from Dilbeek, Anderlecht, Schaerbeek and Vorst. One of the four drivers had previously picked up people in Austria and Germany to take them to Brussels. For example, he previously transported one of the cases of the deadly transport from Berlin to the Aumale metro station to go to the safehouse in Gespstraat.
“Although the entire smuggling route is largely in Vietnamese hands, there are clearly a number of issues,” says Stef Janssens, expert in human trafficking and mokkel at Myria. “They use the systems and infrastructure that already exist. The taxi rides must of course appear as normal as possible. would be noticed if there were suddenly a lot of Vietnamese taxi drivers driving around, which is why they use already active taxi drivers.” The day before the deadly transport, some fifteen people from Brussels, a few people from Paris and a few more people from Germany were taken there.
According to Myria’s 2020 annual report, this is not the first time that Brussels taxi drivers have been deployed in smuggling activities. In 2016, a Syrian-Egyptian smuggling network, originating from the Sudan, smuggled Syria, Erit smuggling, Ethiopia and Afghanistan into the United Kingdom. The smugglers were mainly active in car parks along the E40 motorway and operated from the camps in Calais. The smugglers were then put on a train to the Brussels North or South station, where they were picked up by the smugglers. At the Brussels South station there were also unregistered taxi drivers of ‘fare fare’ who pick up and drop off customers.
“Brussels was clearly a smuggling network”, central point in this Vietnamese smuggling network. “The capital formed a collection point via the safehouses and the vehicles were transported from Brussels to the loading places. The smuggling network had been operational since 2018 and was also present in Brussels. Brussels is not an annex in this case: it is a central point.”
The fact that Brussels was a hub in the smuggling network towards the United Kingdom cannot be translated according to Janssens. “Even apart from the Vietnamese smuggling networks, Brussels is a central point in smuggling phenomena. For example, we know that those in the Calais camps are sometimes instructed to take public transport to Brussels. There they must then contact their smuggler who is located in Maximilian Park or in the vicinity of the North Station. From use they go to a car park transported from them by public transport to the vicinity of a motorway car park, where another smuggler is waiting for them to put them on a lorry heading for the UK. It sometimes also happens that you go directly from Calais to a car park – without a stop in Brussels – but this is especially true for those who can deposit enough money. Brussels is without a doubt a hub. It is a multi-ethnic city: as a smuggler this is of course a more interesting environment than, say, Knokke. After Brussels, the route always heads towards the coast.”
Brussels parquet does not intervene
That is why it is hardly a coincidence that the two underage Vietnamese boys who suddenly drove from a Dutch shelter to Anderlecht, Janssens. The case put the Brussels public prosecutor’s office in a precarious situation. On October 11, 2019, two Vietnamese boys escaped from a shelter for underage refugees in Dutch Limburg where they were taken in the spring of 2019. The two Vietnamese boys were picked up by a Brussels taxi driver. Later that would be one of the four taxi drivers who also made one of the trips to Bierne on the eve of the Essex drama.
The Dutch police chased the Brussels taxi unnoticed to the safe house in the Gespstraat in Anderlecht, where the underage boys stayed for more than a week. Because the taxi was secretly followed by the Dutch police, the Belgian federal police and the Brussels public prosecutor’s office were also informed of the boys’ journey and destination. This is apparent from an answer to a parliamentary question from Ben Segers (Vooruit) to the Minister of Justice, Vincent Van Quickenborne (Open VLD) in February 2021.
The Brussels public prosecutor eventually decided not to understand, expressed it did not prevent the two boys from being found dead twelve days later in a refrigerated truck in Essex. “Something must have gone wrong with the transfer of the case from the Dutch police to the Belgian one,” said MP Segers. Today, however, the Brussels public prosecutor refers to the communication it brought earlier: “There was an extensive interview between the magistrate with the service of the public prosecutor’s office of Brussels and the public prosecutor of the public prosecutor’s office of Limburg were bees that immediately urgent investigation necessitated. The decision from this not to have taken immediately immediately in consultation between the magistrates involved and the police.”
Minister Van Quickenborne can conduct an internal investigation, an investigation at the level of Eurojust, one of the European Union (EU) that supports cooperation between judicial cases across the EU. Because the research was still ongoing until recently, it was not possible to go into all the results of that research in more detail. Segers already gives a new question about the case to be asked as soon as the process is completed.
Although 39 people were killed, all the defendants proclaimed their innocence during the trial. Both the original organizers, owners and taxi drivers are not aware of the people. The Public Prosecution Service demands fifteen years in prison for the key figure. In addition, a fine of 920,000 euros and a confiscation of almost 2.3 million euros hangs over the head. The other defendants, including safe house owners and taxi drivers, face 1 to 10 years in prison. The verdict is expected on January 19.
*Full name recognized by the editors