Dead in the Container: Zeebrugge port in focus

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The truck-Container, in the in England last week, 39 of the Dead were found, came from Zeebrugge in Belgium. Open borders and friction-free movement of goods, the safety authorities are there to the test.

Peter Degroote was surprised about the attention that gets its authority in the last time. Since then, it is known that the truck, in the last week in the English Essex 39 the Dead was found, is here rolled in the port of Zeebrugge on a ferry, to reach him numerous media requests from all over Europe. The Zeebrugge port was well secured, he says. If the tractor people bring in the cargo spaces of trucks, it will not be done in the port area. Degroote is one of the port masters in Zeebrugge, and with the safety measures. He speaks openly. About the business of the Smugglers, he knew, but, as in the newspaper would be, he says.

“We can only hope that this is the normal case. But, of course, arrive each and every year people in large Numbers to the UK. If we can say one thing with certainty,” says Degroote, “then, that people are being dragged.”

Harbour master Peter Degroote: no one hundred percent security

How often this happens here, can hardly understand. Zeebrugge is Belgium’s third largest port. Last year 40 million tonnes of goods were handled. More than half of these Goods remain in the EU. This means the affected vehicles and trucks, containers are not checked at the port. So, as in the case of the cooling container with the 39 people on Board, the contents of Zeebrugge from the unseen to the UK was shipped.

Controls only on the surface

From the Windows in the conference room of the fourth Floor of the port authority, the view stretches across one of the Terminals. Here’s truck for the trip will be handled. Vehicles that pass through the barrier and onto the fenced-in area, have to drive by a plant declared to the harbour master. There, the vehicles will be photographed angles automatically from all points of view, including the driver, number plates and axles. So to be sure who the driver is, and that no one is hiding under the vehicle. What it looks like on the Inside of the Trucks, and as such can not see. According to the port authority less than two percent of all containers are x-rayed.

About 44 percent of all Goods go from Zeebrugge to the United Kingdom

In the rare cases in which a truck is a mobile x-ray device, this is not done in General, because of the suspicion of people smuggling is. The sporadic actions of the security authorities, are primarily used to check shipping papers and to pull the fake Goods from the market.

Police in Zeebrugge in the case of an arrest: The port is used by tractors

At the police station in the port area you do not want to comment on the security measures. Interview requests are politely declined. The officials refer to the Ministry of interior in Brussels.

Truck driver in custody

Also truck drivers make in Zeebrugge break, you can find only a few who are willing to speak openly. Niculescu Nicutse is one of them. The Romanian prepares together with his colleagues on a truck Parking lot to the dinner. There are steaks, potatoes, Mr peels neatly on the pot. An improvised kitchen in the diesel tank of the truck. It is cold, and the later it gets, the more trucks come to the Parking lot rolled.

Nicutse the security here at the port of Zeebrugge good. Elsewhere, it could still happen that people try to get in the truck. “When Parking, in Germany, Holland and France. Especially in Calais is a Problem,” he says. A colleague had once climbed six people in the cargo space.

Truck driver Niculescu Nicutse runs regularly tours via Zeebrugge and is worried about his safety

The fear, the truck driver is large, to be under General suspicion put. Also, security measures such as seal would not prevent anyone from opening up the load space, told Nicutse. The seals, which are mounted directly to the Load, to ensure the recipient that during the transportation no one have access to the goods has given. How stable they are, provide Nicutse directly to proof. He brings an old seal out of the cab and a bolt cutter. A vigorous jerk, and the solid metal rod shatters into two parts, the pitch clinking on the Asphalt.

How, in the future, safety and smooth circulation of goods under a hat to bring, in addition to harbour master Peter Degroote is also concerned. But a concrete answer, he has not. You have to do here with Criminals, and which were, unfortunately, always one step ahead.