As victims of Essex container tragedy are repatriated, helicopter joins search for group seen near Hythe at dawn

Police were trying to track down a group of migrants late on Saturday night, who were seen arriving by boat on the Kent coast, renewing concerns about border security.

They were spotted at the village of Seabrook, near Hythe, at 6am on Saturday, prompting a search operation involving police, Border Force officials and a Coastguard helicopter.

The operation came as police in Essex started repatriating the bodies of the 39 people who died in the back of a refrigerated lorry last month.

On Friday police released the names of the Vietnamese victims. Ten teenagers were among those found in the container, shipped from Belgium to Essex on 23 October.

Anti-Slavery International said it was concerned about the numbers of young Vietnamese nationals being arrested by UK police, despite concerns that they may have been trafficked. Data from freedom of information requests sent by the charity to British police forces showed that 6,796 Vietnamese nationals were arrested between 2012 and 2018, including 1,127 children. Where the reason for arrest was recorded, more than 40% concerned an immigration offence and almost a third were in relation to drugs. “A major concern highlighted by the data is the high number of children being criminalised, many for immigration offences,” said an Anti-Slavery International spokesman.

“This raises concerns as this research has identified that most children do not organise their own travel and are controlled by adults. Having irregular status is a significant indicator that they may be victims of trafficking.”

Maurice Robinson, 25, from Northern Ireland, who was driving the lorry in which the victims were found, was charged last month with 39 counts of manslaughter and conspiracy to traffic people. At least 10 others have been arrested in Vietnam as the police investigation narrows on the origin of the smuggling network.

Vietnamese smugglers have named the deadly route taken by those seeking to reach Britain as the “CO 2 ” route: a poorly ventilated journey across the English Channel in containers or trailers, the last stage of their hazardous voyage from Asia.

On Saturday, as the weather worsened, attention remained on the Kent coast following the early-morning report of Channel crossings.

It follows two incidents on Friday where the Border Force intercepted 20 people in the Channel. The men from both boats were taken to Dover, the Home Office said, where they were expected to be medically assessed before being interviewed by immigration officials.

On Wednesday Dutch police found 16 migrants, including four children, in a lorry that was about to board a ferry at a Dutch port heading for Britain. The occupants, reportedly of various nationalities, were found after the driver told border guards at the port of IJmuiden that he had heard sounds in the trailer of the lorry.

Tom Tugendhat, chair of the Commons foreign affairs committee, has said Britain should continue to attend EU meetings on migration.