The father of one of the eight Turkish stowaways found dead in a shipping container in Wexford last weekend told an inquest into his death that in his last telephone call home he told his family he was in Belgium and bound for England.
Mr Hayder Ucaroglu said his son, Mr Yuksel Ucaroglu (26), one of four brothers and three sisters, had worked as a butcher in a supermarket in his home town of Gaziantep in southeastern Turkey up to October 27th of this year.
On that day, the last Mr Ucaroglu saw his son alive, Yuksel and a friend left for Istanbul to look for work. "If there was no work available, they would go to Europe," said Mr Ucaroglu in a translated statement.
A month later, on November 27th, Yuksel rang home and spoke to his brother, Cenquiz, telling him he was in Belgium and planning to travel to England. That was the last time his family heard from him.
On Wednesday this week, Mr Ucaroglu saw a report in a local newspaper about the deaths of eight stowaways in a container on a journey to Ireland. "Afterwards I received a number of phone calls in the course of which I realised that it was possible that my son was one of those who had died."
Mr Ucaroglu travelled to Ireland late on Thursday night and yesterday morning he identified the body of Yuksel in the mortuary of Wexford General Hospital.
The State pathologist, Prof John Harbison, who carried out a post- mortem examination, said the cause of death was anoxia, meaning lack of oxygen, due to oxygen depletion in an enclosed sealed container. A contributory cause was postural asphyxia due to the way Yuksel was lying - bent almost double.
"He had fallen between cases," Prof Harbison explained. He also had an acute respiratory infection which was another contributory factor.
Mr Yuksel Ucaroglu was one of the last four deceased whose inquests were held in Wexford yesterday. The first four were heard earlier in the week.
The other three deceased were all members of the same family, Mr Hasan Kalendergil (40), his son Kalender (16) and daughter Zelide (10).
The inquest heard evidence from Mr Mustafa Ereogan (30), a nephew of Mr Kalendergil who has lived in London for the past 12 years.
Giving evidence in English Mr Ereogan said Mr Kalendergil's wife, Mrs Kadriye Kalendergil, was his father's sister. He had last seen her late husband and the two children alive in August or September this year when he stayed with the family at their home in Istanbul during a holiday in Turkey.
His aunt had been married to Mr Kalendergil, a butcher, for 18 years but he had known Mr Kalendergil for a few years before that.
He had never met the children before this summer but knew them immediately when he saw them in the morgue at Wexford General Hospital last Sunday. He said Kalender had a distinctive burn mark on his forehead from an accident when he was a young child.
His father, Mr Museyin Erdogan, had also recognised all three in the morgue. Mr Erdogan said his relatives had previously had the surname Pancar but had changed it to Kalendergil through the courts five years ago.
Prof Harbison told the inquest the father and his two children had all died primarily from anoxia. Mr Kalendergil had a respiratory infection which slightly contributed to his death while Kalender had an acute respiratory infection and Zelide had an infection bordering on pneumonia, which also contributed to their deaths.
Wexford County Coroner Mr Jimmy Murphy adjourned the inquest after the evidence on request from Insp Pat McDonald who said criminal proceedings were contemplated.
Mr Murphy referred to the controversy over remarks by the Belgian public prosecutor's office about the level of co-operation from the Irish authorities. He said he understood the remarks had been withdrawn but he wished to assure the Belgian investigators that they would continue to get full co-operation and hospitality until their work was complete.
In a statement read by an interpreter, the families of the deceased expressed their "deep gratitude to the Irish people for their generosity, kindness and compassion".