Thirty-nine Vietnamese migrants suffocated as they were transported across the Channel, enduring unbearable temperatures sealed in pitch darkness inside an airtight container for almost 12 hours, the Old Bailey has heard on the opening day of the trial of four men allegedly involved in a people-smuggling conspiracy. The smugglers who organised the transport of the migrants loaded too many people into one container, starving them of oxygen and exposing them to the toxic effects of excess carbon dioxide, the court heard. The migrants, 10 of whom were teenagers, travelled in a refrigerator unit, but the refrigeration was not turned on and temperatures rose to 38.5C during the journey. There was no phone reception inside the container, but unsent messages found later indicated that the group feared they would not survive. A text message discovered in the phone of one of the dead, 28-year-old Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, read: “Maybe going to die in the container, can’t breathe any more dear.” Bill Emlyn Jones , prosecuting, told the court: “What it must have been like inside that lorry does not bear thinking about.” The people smugglers were aware of the danger posed by possible shortage of oxygen, the court heard. Maurice Robinson, the lorry driver who collected the trailer from Purfleet in Essex on 23 October 2019, was sent a message by his boss telling him to check on the occupants as soon as he had picked it up. “Give them air quickly, but don’t let them out,” the text message read. Robinson made a stop shortly after collecting the container and opened the back doors. “What he found must haunt him still. For the 39 men and women inside, that lorry had become their tomb,” Emlyn Jones said. The court heard that migrants would pay “upwards of £10,000 per person” to cross the Channel. The same team of people smugglers had previously brought a number of lorryloads of people into the UK. When news of the tragedy emerged, one of the drivers who had driven previous containers was asked by a friend about what had happened, and replied by text message: “Must have been 2 many and run out of air.” Emlyn Jones told the court: “It is a sad and unavoidable truth that people from other parts of the world, perhaps countries less secure or less affluent than our own, have shown themselves prepared to go to great lengths to come to the UK, looking for a better life. The risks involved, and the costs involved, financial and personal, can be enormous. “People might spend everything they have to fund the trip, they might leave their families saddled with debt, all because they are prepared to take the risks involved in exchange for the chance of a brighter future. They do it because they are desperate. But being desperate makes them vulnerable to those who care nothing for immigration law, but who see for themselves an opportunity to make money from others by exploiting their desperation.” On trial is Eamonn Harrison, 23, a lorry driver who allegedly took the victims across the continent to Zeebrugge in Belgium, where the trailer was unhooked and loaded on to a cargo ship headed for Purfleet, jurors heard. He faces 39 counts of manslaughter alongside Gheorghe Nica, 43, who is accused of being responsible for organising onward transport for the migrants once they had arrived in the UK. They are both accused of being part of a people-smuggling conspiracy with another lorry driver, Christopher Kennedy, 24, who had allegedly been involved in previous, successful people-smuggling runs. Valentin Calota, 37, another alleged driver involved in the onward transport of migrants, is also accused of participating in the conspiracy, which ran from 1 May 2018 to 24 October 2019. Robinson, who opened the trailer and found the bodies of the dead men and women, has already pleaded guilty to 39 counts of manslaughter and to a people-smuggling conspiracy, as has Ronan Hughes who ran a haulage company based in County Monaghan in Northern Ireland. The victims included 28 men, eight women and three children, two of them 15. They were named by Essex police as Dinh Dinh Binh, 15, Nguyen Minh Quang, 20, Nguyen Huy Phong, 35, Le Van Ha, 30, Nguyen Van Hiep, 24, Bui Phan Thang, 37, Nguyen Van Hung, 33, Nguyen Huy Hung, 15, Nguyen Tien Dung, 33, Pham Thi Tra My, 26, Tran Khanh Tho, 18, Nguyen Van Nhan, 33, Vo Ngoc Nam, 28, Vo Van Linh, 25, Nguyen Ba Vu Hung, 34, Vo Nhan Du, 19. Tran Hai Loc, 35, Tran Manh Hung, 37, Nguyen Thi Van, 35, Bui Thi Nhung, 19, Hoang Van Tiep, 18, Tran Thi Ngoc, 19, Phan Thi Thanh, 41, Tran Thi Tho, 21, Duong Minh Tuan, 27, Pham Thi Ngoc Oanh, 28, Tran Thi Mai Nhung, 18, Le Trong Thanh, 44, Nguyen Ngoc Ha, 32, Hoang Van Hoi, 24, Tran Ngoc Hieu, 17, Cao Tien Dung, 37, Dinh Dinh Thai Quyen, 18, Dong Huu Tuyen, 22, Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, Cao Huy Thanh, 37, Nguyen Trong Thai, 26, Nguyen Tho Tuan, 25, and Nguyen Dinh Tu, 26. The trial before Mr Justice Sweeney is expected to last up to six weeks.