Vietnam says delegation working with British authorities to quickly identify victims

A delegation of the Vietnamese Ministry of Public Security is working with British authorities to quickly identify victims in the Essex truck death incident as many Vietnamese are believed among the 39 dead, its minister To Lam said on Monday.

The delegation arrived in Britain on Sunday and will send the first report home on Monday afternoon at the soonest, the Vietnam News Agency quoted Lam as reporting.

"We have taken with us a lot of verified documents related to local families reporting their relatives missing for cross-checking with the British side, to have conclusion in the shortest time," Lam said, noting that this is the top priority of the working group.

Once Vietnamese victims are confirmed among the 39 dead, the ministry will focus on citizen protection measures, cooperating with other government agencies to repatriate the bodies. At the same time, it will continue investigation to bring those responsible for this incident to justice, the minister said.

So far, the ministry has directed the filing of criminal charges and arrested a number of people related to the organizing and brokering of illegal immigration, Lam said.

On Sunday, Vietnamese Deputy Prime Minister Truong Hoa Binh chaired a meeting over the Essex lorry deaths, requesting relevant ministries and agencies to continue coordinating closely with the British side to identify victims, in order to release official information on the case, according to the statement released on the Vietnamese government portal.

It was reported at the meeting that a delegation from the Vietnamese Ministry of Foreign Affairs had also left for Britain to work with competent British agencies in the identification work.