Brussels house raided in connection with deaths

Authorities in Brussels are reported to have raided a house in the city in relation to an investigation into the death of eight refugees over the weekend. It is not yet known if any arrests have been made.

The eight bodies were found, along with five survivors, in a freight container in Wexford on Saturday. The immigrants had apparently boarded the container in Belgium, believing it was bound for England.

Speaking on Belgian television last night, the head of the maritime police in Zeebrugge, Dirk Calemyn, said that the voyage to Britain would have taken just over four hours, whereas the voyage to Ireland would have taken days.

The refugees were packed into the container by a Europe-based gang dealing in human trafficking for profit. It is believed that the refugees may have been in the freight container for up to eight days.

It is reported that the survivors have been assured they can stay in the Republic if they so wish. The pledge was given by the Taoiseach. Bertie Ahern reportedly said that the five people who emerged alive from the ordeal in County Wexford had "suffered enough".

The condition of the five survivors is said to be improving, though still critical, at Wexford General Hospital. British-based relatives of some of them the refugees have visited them at the hospital. A brother of a Turkish woman in intensive care travelled from England.

Her husband and children died in the container. Family members of one of the Turkish men also arrived. The man's wife and children were among the dead. Results of the post mortems will be released tomorrow.

Belgian police have meanwhile been questioning the lorry driver who collected the container in Cologne and delivered it to the port of Zeebrugge. The Irish container was loaded at the Belgian port.

Officials from the Turkish embassy arrived in Wexford yesterday to help Gardaí establish the identities of the refugees. It is understood at least one of the survivors is Turkish.

The Minister for Justice, John O'Donoghue, said that the investigation into the incident would draw on international police co-operation, which had been set up to counteract human trafficking.

Mr O'Donoghue said that the refugees had been through a terrible trauma. He said that their applications for asylum, if they make such applications, would receive the sympathetic and humane consideration of the Department of Justice.

He added: "There is also the provision, of course, even if they were not to qualify for refugee status, for an order to be made allowing them to stay on humanitarian grounds... I have no intention of saying 'no room at the inn' to these human beings and it was never my intention to say 'no room at the inn' to any human being.

"My difficulty is that I have to have in place rules and regulations otherwise the unfortunate truth is that we would not be able to sustain the level of immigration into the country."

Meanwhile, the company that was due to take delivery of the office furniture that was in the container with the refugees has said all of the items will be burned. Joan Keogh, Managing Director of the PFPC fund administration company, told Joe Duffy on RTÉ's Liveline programme that, even for anyone peripherally involved, it was a horrific thing to happen.