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List of migrant vehicle incidents in Europe

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See also: Timeline of the European migrant crisis and List of migrant vessel incidents on the Mediterranean Sea

This article is a list of illegal migrant vehicle incidents in Europe, involving injury and/or loss of life. Illegal migrants to Europe who have boarded transport vehicles have occasionally been injured or killed in crashes or suffocation incidents. In addition to the illegal migrants themselves, drivers and passengers of vehicles have also been injured or killed[citation needed] – either unintentionally or deliberately – as a result of migrant activity.

List

[edit]
Date Location Passengers Injuries Deaths Description
18 June 2000 Dover, Kent, United Kingdom 60 2 58 58 Chinese illegal migrants were found dead in the back of a Dutch-registered lorry.[1][2]
Main article: Dover lorry deaths
8 December 2001 Drinagh, Wexford, Ireland 13 5 8 The victims were found in a business park in an intermodal container carrying furniture from Italy. They entered the container the night of December 3–4 at a truck stop in Groot-Bijgaarden, Belgium. The plan was for a three-hour voyage from Zeebrugge to Dover rather than a 102-hour voyage in stormy weather to Belview Harbour at Waterford. The dead were all Turks, including four children; the survivors were Turkish, Algerian, and Kosovo Albanian. In 2003 a Belgian court sentenced a London-based Turk and six Belgium-based Kosovars and Moroccans to between two and ten years' imprisonment, the longest in absentia.[3]
17 August 2003 Poole, Dorset, UK 3 0 1 Iraqi Kurdish illegal migrant found dead and two arrested when police stopped a lorry. The dead man had been crushed by the movement of metal containers.[4]
5 October 2005 Haddon, Peterborough, Cambridgeshire, UK 6 0 1 Vietnamese illegal migrant jumped or fell from lorry and died. Police arrested five others, all believed to be Vietnamese.[5]
11 May 2006 A3 near Clanfield, Hampshire, UK 1 0 1 Clung under lorry then fell and crushed by it.[5]
November 2006 Harlow, Essex, UK 1 0 1 Tied himself under lorry; went under wheels after cutting free[5]
June 2007 A43 nr Chambery, France 4 3 1 Hiding in speedboat in transit from Greece to Devon[5]
September 2008 Trent Vale, Staffordshire, UK 1 0 1 At third attempt to enter UK (established from fingerprints of the deceased), run over by lorry[5]
2 December 2008 M3, Winchester, Hampshire, UK 2 0 1 Hand seen protruding from lorry; upon the lorry being stopped, another man ran off[5]
31 October 2009 Eurotunnel Calais Terminal, France 1 0 1 Found dead in hidden compartment in lorry at Tunnel Terminal[5]
11 April 2010 Dunkirk ferry terminal, France 1 0 1 Fell from lorry boarding ferry[5]
21 August 2015 Amstetten, Lower Austria, Austria 30 24 0 24 illegal migrants were injured (3 seriously) when the truck they were travelling in overturned. There were 30 migrants in the vehicle at the time.[6]
24 August 2015 Nickelsdorf, Burgenland, Austria 70–90 37 0 37 illegal migrants were injured in an accident. There were between 70 and 90 migrants in the two trucks involved.[7]
27 August 2015 Ost Autobahn, Burgenland, Austria 71 0 71 Police discovered a truck along the A4 highway and found 71 deceased illegal migrants, including eight children. The truck, which had been parked on the hard shoulder in between the villages of Neusiedl and Parndorf, had been noticed by an employee of the ASFiNAG highway agency who observed liquid seeping out and informed police.[8] All migrants had suffocated within hours of boarding.[9] The driver claimed he did not know how to keep the doors partially shut, in a way that air could seep in. It is not clear when he became aware that the migrants were deceased.[10] In June 2018, the driver and three others were given 25-year sentences on homicide charges. They stated that they regretted what had happened and had not wanted the victims to die.[9]
Main article: Burgenland corpses discovery
29 September 2015 Calais, Hauts-de-France, France 3 0 1 An Iraqi illegal migrant was found crushed to death attempting to reach the UK illegally with the help of a Hungarian lorry driver near Calais when he inspected his cargo after "braking for reasons unknown". Two other relatives were found uninjured.[11]
23 March 2016 Canterbury, Kent, UK 26 2 0 A woman collapsed and was taken to hospital while a boy suffered a leg injury after 26 illegal migrants were found in the back of a Romanian-registered refrigerated lorry. The lorry had been travelling to the UK from Spain.[12]
3 March 2016 Calais, Hauts-de-France, France 0 1 0 Mick Young, a lorry driver from Essex, was violently assaulted by a group of migrants angered by the recent demolition of the Calais migrant camp. The migrants forced Young to stop, then attacked him with sticks, rocks, metal bars and lumps of concrete, leaving him with cuts to his forehead and a wound to his eye which required medical attention.[13]
21 May 2016 Portsmouth, Hampshire, UK 28 1 0 One man required urgent medical attention for inhalation of hazardous fumes and several others received medical attention after 28 illegal migrants were found in the back of a refrigerated lorry.[14]
18 October 2016 Ashford, Kent, UK 1 0 1 An Eritrean man was found dead when a Hungarian-registered lorry stopped at a cafe. French authorities had checked the vehicle in Calais, removing 'around 10' migrants from Eritrea from the lorry.[15]
20 June 2017 A16 autoroute near Guemps, Hauts-de-France, France 0 0 1 A Polish van driver was killed after his vehicle slammed into the back of an articulated lorry stopped by a group of Eritrean illegal migrants, who had blocked the A16 autoroute with tree limbs to break into vehicles. The vehicle exploded upon impact, killing the driver instantly. Nine migrants were arrested.[16]
25 July 2017 A16 autoroute near Calais, Hauts-de-France, France 0 1 0 An HGV driver was left hospitalised with severe injuries after being beaten over the head with a brick by a group of illegal migrants who had stopped his truck; the migrants then hijacked the driver's vehicle and drove it towards the port, but were apprehended by police.[17]
29 December 2017 Calais, Hauts-de-France, France 1 0 1 An Eritrean illegal migrant was crushed to death after the truck in which he was stowed away under a several-tonne pile of paper rolls crashed.[18]
17 November 2018 Brussels-North railway station, Brussels, Belgium 1 0 1 A Chadian illegal migrant was crushed to death under coach when it started moving. The incident was not discovered until a routine check at Folkestone.[19]
22 May 2019 Vojvodina, Serbia 4 2 2 Two illegal migrants died of heatstroke and suffocation and two others were in serious condition after hiding in a tanker truck near the border with Hungary. The driver discovered them when he opened the tank and saw them lying unconscious. At least two of the migrants were from Afghanistan.[20]
6 July 2019 A29 Highway, Netherlands 8 0 1 An illegal migrant died after a fall or jump from a Romanian truck onto a highway in South Holland. All the migrants were presumably from Eritrea.[21][22]
25 August 2019 Slovenian–Croatian border 12 0 1 A woman died after a truck carrying 12 illegal migrants fell into a river after the driver fled a checkpoint near the border. The migrants were from Egypt and Pakistan.[23]
26 August 2019 Alexandroupolis, Greece 16 10 6 Six illegal migrants were killed and another 10 injured when a smuggling jeep carrying them through northern Greece crashed into an irrigation ditch.[24][25]
Main article: Alexandroupolis jeep crash deaths
23 October 2019 Grays, Essex, United Kingdom 39 0 39 Ambulance crews found 39 Vietnamese people dead inside a lorry trailer.[26][27]
Main article: Essex lorry deaths
21 December 2021 Beuvrequen, Pas-de-Calais, France 0 0 1 A Portuguese lorry driver suffered a fatal heart attack after a group of migrants stopped his vehicle, then punched him in the head when he left the cab and attempted to stop them from hijacking it.[28][29]
17 February 2023 Lokorsko, Sofia City Province, Bulgaria 52 34 18 At least 18 migrants were found dead due to suffocation near Sofia.[30]
Main article: Sofia lorry deaths
13 October 2023 Ampfing, Bavaria, Germany 23 16 7 Seven people, including a child, were killed after a minivan driven by a suspected people-smuggler overturned on the A94 motorway while trying to evade police.[31]
Main article: Mühldorf van crash

References

[edit]
  1. ^ "58 dead in port lorry". BBC News. 19 June 2000. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  2. ^ "Dover victims fought for air". BBC News. 23 June 2000. Retrieved 24 October 2019.
  3. ^ Cahill, Ann (26 February 2003). "Taxi driver admits part in transport of human cargo". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 25 October 2019.; Staunton, Denis (26 March 2003). "Seven are sentenced for human smuggling into State". The Irish Times.; Zagaris, Bruce (1 June 2003). "Belgian Court Convicts Foreign Gang of Trafficking in Human Beings". International Enforcement Law Reporter. 19 (6): 214. Retrieved 25 October 2019 – via www.ielr.com.; Looby, David (12 December 2011). "Human trafficking victims honoured on their 10th anniversary". Irish Examiner. Retrieved 25 October 2019.; Byrne, Andrew (30 November 2013). "Wexford's tragic cargo". The Irish Times.
  4. ^ "Roll call of deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, 2002-2004". www.irr.org.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  5. ^ a b c d e f g h "Roll call of deaths of asylum seekers and undocumented migrants, 2005 onwards". www.irr.org.uk. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  6. ^ "Unfall mit Schlepperauto: 24 Verletze" [Accident with truck: 24 injuries]. ORF Niederösterreich. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  7. ^ "37 Verletzte nach Schlepperauto-Kollision" [37 injured after truck collision]. ORF. 24 August 2015. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  8. ^ "Dutzende tote Flüchtlinge in Schlepperfahrzeug im Burgenland entdeckt" [Dozens of dead refugees discovered in a truck in Burgenland]. Der Standard. APA. Retrieved 27 August 2015.
  9. ^ a b "Four jailed for 25 years in Austria migrant death truck case". Reuters. 14 June 2018. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  10. ^ Bell, Bethany; Thorpe, Nick (25 August 2016). "Austria's migrant disaster: Why did 71 die?". Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  11. ^ "Iraqi migrant found crushed to death in truck at Calais". The Irish Times. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  12. ^ Greatrex, Courtney (23 March 2016). "Dozens of refugees found stuffed in the back of lorries in Kent". mirror. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  13. ^ Weaver, Matthew (3 March 2016). "'It was petrifying': lorry driver attacked near Calais feared for his life". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 21 November 2024.
  14. ^ Mendick, Robert; Willgress, Lydia (21 May 2016). "28 suspected illegal immigrants found in the back of a lorry in Portsmouth". The Telegraph. ISSN 0307-1235. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  15. ^ "Stowaway dies in 'tragic accident' on Hungarian HGV, inquest hears". BBC. 5 January 2017. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  16. ^ Samuel, Henry. "Van driver killed in fireball crash after migrants block Calais road with tree trunks". The Daily Telegraph. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  17. ^ "Call for extra security at Calais after truck hijack incident". Truck and Driver. Retrieved 25 October 2019.
  18. ^ "Migrant stowaway crushed by truck's cargo near Calais". www.thelocal.fr. 29 December 2017. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  19. ^ "Migrant died after clothes tangled under coach at Folkestone's Eurotunnel terminal". www.kentonline.co.uk. 23 April 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  20. ^ "Two Migrants Found Dead In Tanker Truck In Serbia". RadioFreeEurope/RadioLiberty. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  21. ^ "Migrant overlijdt na val of sprong uit Roemeense vrachtwagen op snelweg" [Migrant dies after falling or jumping from Romanian truck on highway]. www.hartvannederland.nl. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 26 March 2021.
  22. ^ "Death at the border of an exile based in Belgium- 8 July 2019". www.gettingthevoiceout.org. 9 July 2019. Retrieved 9 November 2019.
  23. ^ "Migrant dies after van plunges into river in Croatia". AP NEWS. 25 August 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  24. ^ "Greek police say 6 migrants killed, 10 hurt in road crash". www.citynews1130.com. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  25. ^ Two Suspects Arrested After Crash that Killed Six Migrants in Greece Tasos Kokkinidis, 27 August 2019 greece.greekreporter.com, accessed 9 November 2019 6 migrants killed, 10 injured when smuggling car crashes in ditch www.keeptalkinggreece.com, accessed 9 November 2019 Greek police say 6 migrants killed, 10 hurt in road crash 26 August 2019 apnews.com, accessed 9 November 2019
  26. ^ "Essex lorry deaths: 39 bodies found in refrigerated trailer". BBC News. 23 October 2019. Retrieved 23 October 2019.
  27. ^ "Essex lorry deaths: Vietnam offers grieving families loans to return bodies". BBC News. 18 November 2019. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  28. ^ Donn, Natasha (21 December 2021). "Portuguese HGV driver dies after altercation with migrants in Calais". Portugal Resident. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  29. ^ "Beuvrequen : un chauffeur routier décède d'un arrêt cardiaque sur l'aire de l'Épitre". La Semaine dans le Boulonnais (in French). 20 December 2021. Retrieved 21 December 2021.
  30. ^ "Bodies of 18 migrants found in abandoned lorry on highway in Bulgaria". Sky News. 17 February 2022. Retrieved 16 August 2023.
  31. ^ "Germany migrants: Seven dead after vehicle crashes in Bavaria". BBC. 13 October 2023. Retrieved 13 October 2023.
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