Turkish diplomats help ID truck death refugees

Officials from the Turkish embassy in Dublin were today aiding gardai in their bid to identify the eight dead and five sick refugees found in a freight container that arrived here from Europe.

The diplomats were called in after it was established that at least one of the illegal immigrants - discovered when the container reached an industrial estate near Wexford - was Turkish.

Though the nationalities of the others had still to be confirmed, it was thought they could also be from Turkey or Albania.

Gardai believe most of the 13 refugees were Turkish.

A police source reported: ‘‘At this stage it seems that the group were mainly, at least, from Turkey.’’

It was thought, though, that the affair could take a number of days to resolve.

The dead were a four-year-old boy, another of nine, a girl aged 10, a youth of 16 or 17, a 20-year-old man, two other men and a woman.

Detectives working on the case were also assessing reports from Belgium that the grouphad mistakenly been loaded on to the wrong container and the intention had been for them to head for a southern English port, rather than Ireland.

The five survivors - four men and one woman - were seriously ill, but said to be improving in the intensive care unit of Wexford General Hospital.

They were suffering from the effects of lung and respiratory conditions, as well as hypothermia.

Dr Paddy McKiernan, the hospital’s consultant physician, said that the condition of the refugees had stabilised, though the woman, in her 40s, was critically ill.

He added, however: ‘‘We are much more hopeful about them now.’’

Post-mortem examinations were being carried out on the eight victims - among them three young children.

Gardai are stepping up attempts to pinpoint the nationalities of the 13 who were packed into the container by a Europe-based gang dealing in human trafficking for profit.

One of the survivors, a 17-year-old youth, recovered sufficiently to make it known through an interpreter that he was Turkish.

Police also had to establish just how long the group had been inside the container.

The vehicle began its trip in Italy and made a stop in Germany, before being loaded onto a ship in the Belgian port of Zeebrugge and heading to Ireland.

They may have been put on board in Belgium, meaning that they were in the container for a minimum of four days, including 48 hours at sea in particularly bad weather conditions.

Bishop of Ferns Dr Brendan Comiskey, has called for a change of attitude towards the position of refugees.

Dr Comiskey - who directed prayers to be said at all masses for the victims of the incident - said he was appalled at the tragedy.

But he added: ‘‘It should not surprise anybody. It has been stated again and again that if we put up higher walls without looking at the desperate situation in which these people are living, we can expect more and more of this to happen.

‘‘Obviously, when people are desperate, they simply go underground. The European legislation will have to be looked at.

‘‘Europe is becoming known as Fortress Europe, instead of a family of nations.’’