Spokesperson: Essex lorry deaths labelled as "serious humanitarian tragedy"

Foreign Ministry's Spokesperson Le Thi Thu Hang

     >>> VN, UK discuss coordination in identifying Essex tragedy victims

“We are deeply saddened and offer our deepest sympathy to families of the victims and hope they will soon overcome such the huge loss,” said the Spokesperson.

Immediately after hearing the case, the Vietnamese Foreign Ministry directed the Consular Department and Embassy in London to coordinate with relevant agencies and localities of Viet Nam and the UK, provide information related to the case to support identification of nationality of the victims, open hotlines to receive information and prepare citizen protection measures in case Vietnamese are among the victims, Hang said.

The Vietnamese Embassy also transferred identification results from the UK police to Viet Nam’s competent authorities for cross-check.

The Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security and UK police are coordinating in identifying the victims thought to be Vietnamese for early official information announcement, according to Hang.

Viet Nam strongly condemns human smuggling activities, which is a serious crime that must be strictly punished, Hang stressed.

Viet Nam calls on other countries in the region and the world to step up cooperation in combating human smuggling in order to prevent the recurrence of similar tragedies, Hang said.

She took the occasion to emphasize that Viet Nam extends thanks to and highly values the efforts made by the UK side in identification process and in coordination with Viet Nam’s competent authorities over the past time.

"We hope that the British side would soon complete the investigation to bring those responsible for this tragedy to justice," Hang stated./.

By Thuy Dung