LONDON, Aug 23 (Reuters) – Two lorry drivers were charged on Saturday by British police investigating the death of an Afghan man who was among 35 suspected stowaways found in a shipping container at a dock in eastern England a week ago.
Police said Stephen McLaughlin and Timothy Murphy, both aged 34 and from Northern Ireland, were charged with conspiring to facilitate illegal entry into the United Kingdom.
The body of Meet Singh Kapoor, 40, was found on Aug 16 when staff at Tilbury docks in Essex, eastern England, heard screaming and banging coming from a container being unloaded after arriving on a ferry from Zeebrugge in Belgium.
They found 35 people in the shipping container, including about 13 children aged between one and 12, who were believed to be from Afghanistan and were mainly Sikhs. Several needed hospital treatment for hypothermia and dehydration.
Sikhs make up a tiny minority in Afghanistan’s population of around 31 million people.
Police are continuing investigations to find out how the people came to be in the container and to establish the cause of Kapoor’s death.. (Reporting by Belinda Goldsmith, Editing by Rosalind Russell)
(c) 2014 Thomson Reuters, All Rights Reserved
Join the gCaptain Club for curated content, insider opinions, and vibrant community discussions.
Join the 109,040 members that receive our newsletter.
Have a news tip? Let us know.
U.S. President-elect Donald Trump is serious about trying to acquire Greenland, both to expand America's sphere of influence in the Western Hemisphere and as a way to cement his legacy, according to three sources familiar with his thinking.
A Norwegian shipping company on Friday rejected an accusation from Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, that it refused to rescue sailors from a sinking Russian cargo ship in the Mediterranean Sea.
Israel struck multiple targets in Yemen it said were controlled by Houthis, the last of the Iran-backed groups still fully engaged in the regional war that began 14 months ago.
Maritime and offshore news trusted by our 109,040 members delivered daily straight to your inbox.
Essential news coupled with the finest maritime content sourced from across the globe.
Sign Up
Join The Club
