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Third arrest made in immigrant smuggling deaths
WebPosted Wed Jun 21 10:50:40 2000

AMSTERDAM - Dutch police have made a third arrest in connection with the deaths of 58 illegal migrants to Britain.

Poice in Rotterdam arrested the owner of a tomato truck where the bodies of 54 men and four women, all in their 20s, were found at the British port of Dover Sunday.

The migrants were crammed in with a shipment of tomatoes

He surrendered to police Tuesday evening, bringing the total arrested in the case to three, including the driver of the truck and an unidentified person arrested in Rotterdam Monday.

Dutch police are questioning 24-year-old Arie Van der Spek, who registered Van der Spek Transporten as a company last week. That's the company that leased the truck.

At the same time, British officials say they're furious with authorities in Belgium. They say Belgium may have apprehended the migrants two months ago, told them to get out of the country, but then never checked to see where they went.

Police are tracing how the 58 dead and two survivors got from the coastal Chinese province of Fujian to the back of that truck. They've found that a group of Chinese migrants fitting the victims' description was detained in Belgium two months ago.

A group of Chinese migrants fitting the victims' description was detained in Belgium two months ago.
Belgian police said Tuesday those people were ordered to leave the country and placed on a train to Antwerp.

That isn't good enough for British authorities who have to deal with up to 2,000 illegal immigrants found hidden in trucks at or near British ports each month. Britain says its policy is to send the migrants back to the country they came from.

British customs officials uncovered the 58 corpses on Sunday during a routine inspection. The cooling system in the truck had been turned off despite soaring temperatures.

All 58 dead suffocated.

The only two men who survived told an interpreter that some of the victims screamed for help as they clawed at the back door of the truck.

Police believe the human smuggling operation may be tied to Chinese gangsters known as snakeheads. Individuals pay the gangs up to $50,000 for passage to the West.

The two survivors have been placed under armed guard to protect them from the smuggling gangs who want to protect their lucrative business.

The numbers of Chinese illegally entering Europe has risen significantly over the past few months. Western Europe has become a favoured destination because of recent crackdowns in Canada and the U.S.


Ann MacMillan reports for CBC TV

Margaret Evans reports for CBC Radio


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