N. Van Kim (34) was part of a criminal organisation involved in large-scale smuggling operations, including the transport that led to the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants—two of them minors—found in a refrigerated lorry in Essex, United Kingdom, on 23 October 2019. The lorry had been shipped from Zeebrugge.

This conviction follows an international investigation in which 23 suspects were arrested. Several were sentenced in January 2022 by the same court, with revised sentences handed down by the Ghent Court of Appeal in February 2023. The present case concerned a fourth suspect who had not yet been tried due to pending investigative steps. He was summoned this year but failed to appear and remains at large.

The court found that N. Van Kim played a key role in the smuggling network, which organised over 100 illegal transport operations. He was involved in recruiting migrants, coordinating transport with taxi drivers, and accommodating individuals in temporary apartments prior to their attempted crossings to the UK. In some cases, migrants were held until full payment—averaging €24,544—had been made.

According to the judgment, the defendant deliberately or through gross negligence endangered the lives of the victims and bears shared responsibility for the deaths in Essex. The court described the proven acts as particularly grave and as reflecting a fundamental disregard for human dignity.

For more details, please read (in Dutch) the press release from the Court of First Instance of West Flanders.