Smuggled immigrants 'promised flights'

Boxes of tomatoes allegedly prevented people escaping

The 58 Chinese immigrants found dead in the back of a lorry at Dover did not know they would have to hide in vehicle but were told they were going to fly to Britain, a court has been told.

One of only two survivors found in the back of truck, Ke Shi Guang, 22, told Maidstone Crown Court they had been lied to by the Snakehead criminal gangs, who they paid to get them into the UK.

Dutch lorry driver Perry Wacker, 32, is accused of manslaughter and attempting to smuggle people into the UK from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge. He denies the charges.

I felt I did not have enough experience and that I needed to be taken care of

Ke Shi Guang
Lorry survivor

Chinese interpreter Ying Guo, 29, of South Woodford, Essex, denies conspiracy to smuggle immigrants into Britain.

Customs and Excise officers found 54 men and four women suffocated in the airtight lorry container of tomatoes on 18 June last year at Dover's eastern docks.

Mr Guang, who said he was escaping religious persecution as a Catholic in the Fujian province of China, said he had been told he would travel by air.

He told the court that he knew he would be kept captive in a safe house in London until his family paid the £20,000 fee for smuggling him into the UK, but he did not expect to kept in a sealed container during the journey.

'Brutal gangs'

Elizabeth Marsh QC, defending Ms Guo, asked why he had chosen to pay a criminal gang to get him to the country instead of buying a plane ticket in Beijing for less money and claiming asylum on arrival.

He said: "I felt I did not have enough experience and that I needed to be taken care of. I needed someone to escort me."

The court heard that the immigrants knew that the Snakehead gangs in China were powerful and brutal.

Mr Guang said he knew his family had no option but to pay the £20,000 when he arrived in Britain or they would face retribution.

Minders

The court heard that the immigrants were told by the Snakeheads to say they were travelling on commercial travel visas if stopped at border controls.

Mr Guang was given a Korean passport to use by the gang's minders travelling with them.

They had flown from Beijing to Yugoslavia, before being taken to Hungary by car, then Austria and France in a van, and Holland by train.

Mr Guang said: "From China to Yugoslavia we did not have to hide or cross secretly, but from Yugoslavia to Holland we did."

The trial continues.