Distraught Vietnamese relatives call hotlines

Chinese analysts slammed some Western media's malicious hyping of the Essex truck tragedy for groundlessly accusing China of involvement in human trafficking between Asia and Europe when the nationality of the victims and their means of transit were unconfirmed.

UK police discovered a lorry with 39 dead bodies on Wednesday at the Waterglade Industrial Park in Grays. Ambulance staff first found the bodies, but it is still unknown who alerted them, according to the BBC.

The dead were initially reported to be Chinese nationals but police moved their focus to Vietnam after Vietnamese families - at least 24 as of press time - reported their relatives missing and suspected among the dead.

As mourning ceremonies were held Saturday for the victims in rural Vietnamese townships, Chinese internet users shared prayers for the victims and hoped the case could be solved as soon as possible.

Meanwhile some Western media hyped the case to attack China and accused China of acting as a transit stop for human trafficking between Asia and Europe.

Assuming based on the UK police statement that all 39 people were illegal Chinese immigrants, a CNN reporter asked at a routine press briefing of the Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairsthat if China had achieved 70 years of successes, advances and progress what would motivate people to leave China in such a risky way. But Foreign Ministry spokesperson Hua Chunying had earlier stated the people's nationality remained unconfirmed.

Hua slammed the "out of turn question."

"I believe everyone is saddened by the 39 lost souls…The urgent task is to find out what actually happened and find ways to address similar issues," Hua said.

Hua said the CNN reporter's question had "a problem." "It exposes something in your mind or rather, in the mind of some American media that you represent. What kind of answer did you expect to get from that?" Hua asked.

Li Haidong, a professor at the China Foreign Affairs University's institute of international relations in Beijing, said that some Western media stirring up trouble with China with the case demonstrated their malicious purpose to tarnish China and shun the Western world's responsibility.

Illegal immigration resulted from imbalanced global development, a problem which Western media should pay more attention to rather than blaming developing countries for the tragedy happening on their own land, Li told the Global Times on Sunday.

In response to another question concerning the tragedy on the Friday press conference, Hua noted that countries need to strengthen communication and coordination to reduce the incidence of similar tragedies and prevent them happening.

Chinese net users slammed the question as inhumane and shifting the focus.

"The CNN reporter doesn't care how many died, who they are or what their families feel like," read a post on China's Twitter-like Sina Weibo. "What they are interested in is using the tragedy to attack China. The purpose goes beyond the basic professional ethics of truth."

Truth unraveling

The truck driver Maurice Robinson, 25, from Craigavon in Northern Ireland, will appear in court on Monday for an initial hearing as British police charged him with 39 counts of manslaughter and other offences including conspiracy to traffic people, Reuters reported Saturday. Another four suspects have also been arrested - three in Britain and one in Dublin - on suspicion of manslaughter and human trafficking.

But the trio arrested in the UK have been released on bail on Sunday, The Guardian reported.

Police are also investigating a "wider conspiracy" as some Vietnamese whose relatives are allegedly among the 39 victims told media that the discovered victims were part of more than 100 traveling on three trucks to the UK.

The other two were believed to have arrived at the eventual destination, which is unknown, UK media Sky News reported.

Bui Thi Nhung, a 19-year-old Vietnamese woman, is feared among the victims, the Independent reported Sunday. Relatives said the teenager paid a smuggler more than $10,000 to travel to Britain in the hope of working in a nail bar.

A representative of VietHome, a website for Vietnamese people in the UK, passed on the pictures of almost 20 people reported missing to the police, BBC reported Sunday.

The Vietnamese Embassy in London has set up a hotline to help families seeking information about their relatives. The Vietnamese Ambassador in the UK Tran Ngoc An also met UK police and paid tribute to the victims at the civic center in Grays, The Guardian reported.