Belgian prosecutors today accused eight people of running a human trafficking ring that caused the deaths of eight Turkish illegal immigrants when they were smuggled into Ireland two years ago.
They claim the accused, most of whom live in Belgium, are guilty of smuggling 13 migrants and the unintentional manslaughter of eight of them. They were discovered hidden in a cargo container aboard a truck in south-east Ireland in December 2001.
The court heard about the harrowing, four-day journey from Belgium to Ireland of the 13 illegal immigrants.
Two Garda detectives gave evidence at the start of the trial.
Detective Superintendent Pat Brehony of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation told a court in Bruges yesterday that the victims, who included three children aged between four and 12, had entered the container at a truck stop outside Brussels on the morning of December 4th 2001.
"When they were being loaded they were told they were going to Dover and that they would be there within three hours," he said.
In fact, the immigrants spent more than 101 hours in the container, surviving on 18 bottles of mineral water and some cheese.
The container was ventilated by four small apertures, measuring two inches by six inches and the victims died of lack of oxygen.
Apart from the Belgian truck driver Johan Schroven, others standing trial include two Albanians, Donald and Flamour Domi, who along with Bekim Jogaj and Ozgur Doganbaloglu, were allegedly running the European smuggling ring out of Belgium.
Two Brussels taxi drivers, Mohamed Kebdani and Abedeslam Tribak, were also charged along with Enver Berisha, who also lives in the Belgian capital.
Schroven claims he was unaware he was transporting the refugees when he picked up his cargo in Cologne, Germany, before taking the container to the Belgian port of Zeebrugge, where it was loaded on a ship.
The five survivors are expected to attend the second day of the trial, officials said.
Prosecutor Freddy Vandamme said if found guilty at the end of their trial in Bruges, the eight could face up to 17 years in jail.
In a similar case three years ago, 58 Chinese people suffocated in the back of a truck at Dover. The Dutch driver was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in prison.
Illegal immigrants usually pay large sums to smugglers for passage to a safe country and are often transported in poor and dangerous conditions, without adequate food, water and ventilation.
AP