British Officials Find 35 People Inside Shipping Container

[IDemo]

Source: Voice of America

August 16, 2014 9:14 AM

British police say one man has died and at least 19 people have been hospitalized after they were found inside a shipping container at a port east of London.

Investigators say a total of 35 people, including women and children, were found inside the container on Saturday at the Tilbury Docks in Essex.

Police Superintendent Trevor Roe told reporters that port workers heard "screaming and banging" inside the container, which had arrived on a ship from the Belgian port of Zeebrugge.

He said authorities have been searching other containers from the ship, in case there are more people inside.

Read more: http://www.voanews.com/content/british-officials-find-35-people-inside-shipping-countainers/2415526.html

[riverwalker]

1. from ? to Belgium?

Investigators say they do not know where the container originated. They say the survivors are believed to be from the "Indian subcontinent."

[Hulk]

2. Port authorities should be searching EVERY container that comes into port.

Dogs, personnel, and technology if necessary. Cost?? Sure, a bundle. But how else do you stop the smuggling of narcotics, weapons, contraband, and humans?? It may slow shit down, but maybe shit needs to be slowed down. Besides...it's a boat load of employment and training of dogs, etc. Good for the economy!! People WON'T vote for higher taxes...maybe they'll suck it up in higher prices at Walmart and elsewhere. That's not to pick on the Walmart shoppers, as many are low income. But it will focus on EVERY consumer. Even the high end stores are stocked with 90% China and elsewhere today.

[intaglio]

3. How about body searches of all passengers at airports?

Cavity searches for all those who seem suspicious.

Tilbury is a fairly small container port and handles nearly 1400 containers per day. Those figures are only for the containers on the dockside and ignore those not unloaded. Due to size and weight you would need a dedicated container handling crane, at least 3 officers (to minimise pilfering), an area where the front 20ft of the container could be unloaded, special customs clearance etc. etc. Each search would probably average 2 hours plus documentation time. That comes out to nearly 1200 man days per day; 1400 x 2 x 3/8 + fudge factor for the crane driver and the paper shuffling but not allowing for time off (sickness, holidays, statutory training requirements), disruption to port activities and the thousand other factors I do not know about.

Felixstowe, Britain's largest container port handles 4 times that many containers

You have absolutely no idea

[Hulk]

6. I'm guessing that's what I'm suggesting.

As for having "no idea", I appreciate your condescending comment. I'm sure you have all the ideas. Fact is, the first time something significant comes in to this country via container that causes massive casualties or destruction, you might be singing a different tune.

Don't care to argue the point with such an "all knowing" mind as yours. You've managed to pump it up to the max extreme. Again, I'll save my time from responding to your insulting post.

[intaglio]

7. In other words you had not thought about it, just reacted from your gut

Well, that's great if you are a soldier in imminent danger but bad in more complex situations.

BTW your "...first time something significant comes in to this country via container that causes massive casualties or destruction," is no different from the idiotic and expensive response of the US Government to 9/11 and the "shoe bomber". The truth is that we live in a world where mass destruction is easily engineered - no matter what searches and preventative measures are undertaken. How, for example would you prevent a USS Cole style attack on a cruise liner? Ban all RIBs?

[T_i_B]

8. Yep

Also, security at Tilbury is pretty decent to be honest. I'd be asking more questions about what was happening at the place of origin.

[snooper2]

4. How about we just make all shipping containers out of glass

LOL

[Turborama]

10. Well, if money's no object...

[Skittles]

5. I feel so sorry for these folk

what they must be escaping from, to put themselves through such an ordeal

[flamingdem]

9. I believe this happens often

at the San Pedro harbor in Los Angeles. Mostly Chinese nationals.