Driver charged over Irish deaths

Ireland has become an increasingly popular destination for refugees

BRUGES, Belgium -- A lorry driver has been charged in Belgium in connection with the deaths of eight refugees found in a freight container in Ireland last weekend, police said.

The driver is due to appear in court in Bruges, Belgium, on Friday after being arrested earlier this week.

The man is suspected of having driven the lorry that took the container to the port of Zeebrugge a week ago, ahead of its departure to Waterford, Ireland.

He will face charges of co-operating with smugglers of humans, the Press Association reported.

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The bodies of a boy aged around four and a boy and girl, both aged about 10 or 11, as well as a woman and four men, were found when the container was opened in the town of Wexford on Saturday, after being driven from Waterford.

Also inside were five survivors -- four men and a woman -- who are being treated in the intensive care unit of Wexford General hospital where they were said to be "very seriously ill."

Post mortem examinations showed the illegal migrants suffocated in the vehicle, which also contained Italian-made office furniture for an Irish customer.

'Cruel trade'

It has also been established that the refugees, thought to have been locked in the container by a gang dealing in human-trafficking in return for cash payments, should have been put on a ship bound for a southern English port rather than Ireland.

The British trip would have taken a few hours rather than the two days in gale force sea conditions that the refugees were instead forced to endure.

The lorry driver being held in Belgium has faced an intense period of questioning by police, and Belgian detectives are expected to arrive in Wexford to interview survivors of the container ordeal.

Inquests into four of the eight dead have been opened, with the remainder starting on Friday after final confirmation of identities.

Irish Prime Minister Bertie Ahern condemned those responsible for smuggling illegal immigrants and said no effort would be spared in bringing them to justice.

"Those involved in the cruel trade of trafficking in human beings have perpetrated yet another atrocity on the victims of their greed," he told the Associated Press.

The Irish government has made it clear that the survivors will be permitted to stay in Ireland -- if they want to.

Last year, 58 Chinese immigrants who were found dead in the back of a lorry at the English Channel port of Dover.

The immigrants suffocated during a six-hour ferry crossing from Zeebrugge in Belgium to Dover as they tried to enter Britain hidden in the back of the lorry container which was laden with tomatoes.

The Dutch driver was convicted of manslaughter and sentenced to 14 years in prison.