A crowd gathers on Thursday in London to mourn the 39 victims found in a truck in Essex. On Friday, the Chinese Foreign Ministry said that the UK police could not confirm the nationality of the victims yet, and that the investigation is ongoing. The ministry said the UK police will keep the Chinese side informed. Photo: IC

Police in Belgium and France have arrested 26 suspected people smugglers over the deaths of 39 Vietnamese migrants in a refrigerated truck in Britain in 2019.

The migrants - 31 men and eight women - were found dead in the truck in an industrial zone east of London in October 2019, sparking an international outcry.

The driver of the lorry has already admitted manslaughter over the deaths but Tuesday's arrests targeted the ring of smugglers suspected of organizing the migrants' journey.

Police swooped in a series of raids around Brussels and Paris as part of a probe also involving British and Irish investigators.

In Belgium - where some of the victims stayed before their fateful journey - police held 13 people, including 11 Vietnamese nationals.

"The network set up by the smugglers is suspected of having likely transported up to several dozen people every day for several months," Belgian federal prosecutors said in a statement Wednesday. 

"The organization focused on transporting refugees from Asia, particularly from Vietnam."

Prosecutors suspect the gang organized the transport of the Vietnamese migrants in the container where they died.

Most of those arrested in France are also Vietnamese, according to an investigation source.

The probe has discovered that the migrants who died were loaded onto the truck in northern France, and that the network continued its operations even after the tragedy, charging 15,000 to 20,000 euros to cross from France to Britain.

Even the coronavirus lockdown did not stop the gang's smuggling activities, the source said.

The tragedy shone a spotlight on the extraordinary dangers migrants are willing to risk to reach Britain, with some paying smugglers up to $40,000 for the perilous journey.

Post-mortem tests found the victims died from lack of oxygen and overheating, and one sent a poignant text message to her family in Vietnamese as she lay dying in the truck.

AFP