NGHE AN: A photo of her missing daughter Bui Thi Nhung, an offering of fruit and a bouquet of flowers – a makeshift shrine laid by a desperate mother in a remote Vietnamese town many fear was home to some of the 39 people found dead in a truck in Britain.
More than 20 Vietnamese are feared to be among the bodies found in a refrigerated trailer in an industrial park in Essex east of London on Wednesday (Oct 23).
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Many are believed to have come from central Vietnam, a hotspot for migrants hoping for better lives abroad.
In Nhung's town the signs of money sent back from overseas earners are everywhere: Motorbikes and cars, freshly renovated homes, and a recently-opened bubble tea shop along the main road.
There is also a church, filled on Saturday with locals praying for the 39 victims.
British police initially said the 31 men and eight women found in the truck on were Chinese.
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But then came the pleas from desperate Vietnamese families fearing their relatives were in the vehicle.
Some received chilling messages from their relatives in what was believed to be their dying hours. Others have heard nothing at all.
"We are very, very sad and confused," said Bui Van Diep who fears his 19-year-old sister Nhung was on the ill-fated truck.
READ: Vietnam PM orders probe into human trafficking allegations in UK truck deaths
Pham Van Thin (right) fears his 26-year-old daugher Pham Thi Tra My is among the 39 people found dead in the truck after they got a chilling message from her saying she could not breathe. (Photo: AFP/STR)
She left their small Phu Xuan village in central Nghe An province about two months ago and has not been heard from since.
"We really want to have a confirmation so that we can know about my sister," he said, stricken.
Their mother sits before a portrait of smiling Nhung on the makeshift altar weeping, hoping for any news at all from the missing teenager.
Normally set up only for the dead, Nhung's family now prays at the altar in the hopes she is still alive.
In this remote village of Nghe An province, one of Vietnam's poorest, most people know someone who has gone abroad.
Many embark on treacherous journeys overland via Russia or China, risking their lives and paying smugglers tens of thousands of dollars to get to the UK, often carrying falsified documents.
They are lured by promises of earning good money in Britain, where many illegal Vietnamese migrants work as manicurists or cannabis farmers.
"SO MUCH PAIN"
Promises of quick riches was what drove 27-year-old Nguyen Dinh Tu to Europe, where he hoped to earn enough to renovate the family home.
He left Vietnam for Germany in the last year, and paid smugglers US$6,400 in the hopes of making it to Britain.
But his family fears he might have not reached the country alive.
"We're devastated by this news. We're in so much pain," his brother Nguyen Van Tinh told AFP.
"We just wish authorities would help us bring the body of our loved one back," he said.
