These Dead Have Names
They came looking for the gold lined streets of england and died in a refrigerated container
These dead have names
23rd of October 2019
on a deserted essex industrial park –
“Going to die, can’t breathe any more dear” –
a man opened, then closed his trailer’s doors –
“Give them air quickly don’t let them out.”
they could not have moved, tight packed thirty nine,
shipped from Bierne to the port of Purfleet,
struggling to breathe, the air becoming toxic.
“There’s immigrants in the back….lying…not moving”.
searching for life, signs of a pulse or a breath,
the rescuers, traumatised, found none.
To those that killed these dead have names:
Pham Thi Tra My
Nguyen Dinh Luong
Nguyen Huy Phong
Vo Nhan Du
Tran Manh Hung
Tran Khanh Tho
Vo Van Linh
Nguyen Van Nhan
Bui Phan Thang
Nguyen Huy Hung
Tran Thi Tho
Bui Thi Nhung
Vo Ngoc Nam
Nguyen Dinh Tu
Le Van Ha
Tran Thi Ngoc
Nguyen Van Hung
Hoang Van Tiep
Cao Tien Dung
Cao Huy Thanh
Tran Thi Mai Nhung
Nguyen Minh Quang
Le Ngoc Thanh
Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh
Hoang Van Hoi
Nguyen Tho Tuan
Dang Huu Tuyen
Nguyen Trong Thai
Nguyen Van Hiep
Nguyen Thi Van
Tran Hai Loc
Duong Minh Tuan
Nguyen Ngoc Ha
Nguyen Tien Dung
Phan Thi Thanh
Nguyen Ba Vu Hung
Dinh Dinh Thai Quyen
Tran Ngoc Hieu
Dinh Dinh Binh
empty chairs, whispered names, brutal deaths,
an increasingly uncaring world.
Bhi, your well-crafted memorial is about all they will get. A bleak commentary on desperate people trying to escape societal collapse across the globe despite all of our industrial, agricultural, etc. enlightenment. It is now routine to have multiple migrant deaths on U.S. southern border, Mediterranean sea, oceans around Australia, even inside China where people have to have passports to go from the dirt-poor countryside to the rich coastal cities.
Apologies for the late reply, CW. This, somehow, slipped through the net!
As you say these are now routine occurrences, and get a line or two in the local press and then no more. The youngest in this group was a boy of 15.
bhi
Bhi, your piece immortalises their names – and of course, your talent.
Such a sad ending for people who started out full of something denied to them in their daily lives – hope, and snuffed out in suffocation with their lives. Brings tears to my eyes.
(Thinks: What if we could list the names of all those who have died from Coronavirus unnecessarily too? Not enough paper, methinks.)
Blessings, Allen
Allen, thank you for reading. This was one of those occurrences which had a lot of attention in the press – but initially it was focused on the driver and how he could not possibly be involved in such a terrible event – and then died down. I just wanted to give the dead their names back; that is the least they deserve.
all the best
bhi