U.K. MP calls for crackdown on human trafficking after 39 bodies found in truck

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The discovery of 39 bodies in the back of a truck near London proves that modern international migration agreements don't do enough to deter human trafficking, says Conservative U.K. MP Andrew Mitchell.

British police found the bodies of 38 adults and one teenager inside a truck trailer at an industrial estate in Essex on Wednesday. Police said the trailer had arrived at nearby docks having traveled from Zeebrugge in Belgium.

The victims have not yet been identified, and their cause of death is under investigation. The driver, 25-year-old man from Northern Ireland, has been arrested on suspicion of murder.

Refugee advocates are blaming the government for not creating safe and legal routes by which people fleeing war and persecution can reach the United Kingdom. 

Mitchell says he blames human traffickers and an international system that he says does nothing to stop them. Here is part of his conversation with As It Happens host Carol Off. 

As you know, police still have not determined how these 39 people died. Is there much doubt in your mind, though, that the deaths were due to human trafficking?

There's no doubt at all, and it's an awful prospect.

I think not only of the families of all 39 of the victims of this — all of them will have loved ones, sisters, brothers, husbands, wives — but I think also of the emergency workers who will never forget the experience of opening up the back of that container this morning and what they saw inside.

This was in Essex. And, as the Freight Transport Association has pointed out ... the route that this lorry was taking from Bulgaria to Essex was an unorthodox route. What do you make of that? Why do you think that it was traveling such a long way, which probably exposes people to some of the conditions that may have killed them?

The honest answer is I don't know. And, of course, it's now the subject of a murder investigation by the police, and we must await the conclusions of that investigation, which I'm sure will not be long in coming.

But what the whole incident, I'm afraid, underlines is that there has been a complete breakdown in the conventions governing refugees and, indeed, asylum seekers too. Because over recent years that these conventions have been in operation, the whole nature of foreign travel and migration has changed.

And we need to recognize that. We've seen terrible examples, not only today, but also in the Mediterranean, people leaving Libya, deaths on European shores caused by often very brave people who put themselves into the hands of the modern-day equivalent of the slave trader and who suffer the appalling fates that have been suffered, which we've seen in Essex today.

And what, therefore, is required is the international community to recognize that the current conventions are broken, and try and negotiate internationally — probably through the United Nations — a new convention, a new accord, which gives protection to people from traffickers.

I hope that Britain and Canada will be two of the nations who will push for this.

I would do anything to get out of some of the situations these people are leaving. Isn't the issue that people will do anything they can to try and get themselves and their families to someplace safe? Isn't that what's behind this?

Well, of course it is. And that's why I made the point that often these are very brave people.

We've seen this in the exodus from Syria where probably north of a million people have now sought to come across to Europe. They are, by and large, the brightest and the best from Syrian society, and they have to put themselves into the hands of the modern-day equivalent of the slave trader.

And these evil people who mount this trade, they need to be deterred in the same way that we need to deter people from coming in the first place. We need to warn people much better than we do at the moment about the dangers of being trafficked and the desperate dangers and harm they place themselves into.

But we also need a real deterrent to stop people-traffickers from practising their evil trade.

The people who are desperate will find a way, which appears to be why they took this unorthodox route ... to avoid going through the port of Calais, which has very high security because that used to be the common route that people were taking. How much responsibility does the U.K., does the Home Office, have to bear for the deaths of these 39 people?

I don't think we're in the position of allocating blame like that. I think we're in the position of trying to ensure that the full force of justice is visited on the people who are responsible for these deaths. 

But as I say, the critical thing is that we recognize that the international conventions simply are not fit for purpose, and we need to ensure that they are thoroughly overhauled and updated to meet the modern-day nature of migration and exodus like this which, as I say, is very different from how it was when many of these conventions were first put together.

But, again, what will you do? If your idea is to make it more difficult or have bigger penalties for human traffickers, what do you do about the reasons why people are fleeing and why they're even taking these desperate measures in order to get to your country?

That is much of the argument and ethos behind Britain's international development program, which is one of the largest in the world ... and Canada is a very staunch and strong leader and supporter of international development as well.

And the purpose of much of this expenditure is to try to build the sort of decent, safe, conflict-free and more prosperous societies, which mean people will not seek to leave. And that's something which makes progress every year.

But because of the ease of traffic now, we have to recognize that that is a process which will take time. And in the meanwhile, we need to update these conventions.

Written by Sheena Goodyear. Interview produced by Jeanne Armstrong. Q&A has been edited for length and clarity.