Second man detained over Wexford refugees’ death

Belgian police have arrested a second man in their investigation into the deaths of eight refugees found in a freight container…

Belgian police have arrested a second man in their investigation into the deaths of eight refugees found in a freight container in Ireland last year.

Scene of the tragedy in Wexford last December

Bruges public prosecutor Mr Jean-Marie Berkvens said that the man, who holds Belgian citizenship and originally comes from the former Yugoslavia, was charged with conspiring to smuggle people. He declined any further details.

Mr Berkvens said a Belgian truck driver arrested last month, also on charges of involvement in human trafficking, had been released from jail pending trial.

Eight refugees died of suffocation last December in what was thought to have been a botched attempt by a criminal gang to smuggle the mainly Turkish refugees to Britain.

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The incident was a reminder of the death by suffocation of 58 Chinese illegal immigrants in a tomato truck in June 2000. Their bodies and two survivors were discovered in Dover, England, in a truck that had arrived on a ferry from Zeebrugge.