Parents of Phạm Thị Trà My in Nghèn Town, Hà Tĩnh, reported their daughter had gone missing en route to the UK to work. — Photo vtc.vn

HÀ TĨNH — Police in central Hà Tĩnh Province have started investigating services which offer to send labourers overseas to work or stay illegally.

This is the latest move related to the 39 bodies found in a container in Essex, the UK.

Ten families in Nghèn Town and the communes of Thiên Lộc, Vĩnh Lộc and Thanh Lộc have so far reported to the authorities that they have lost contact with their children.

Tuổi Trẻ (Youth) newspaper reported that the provincial police confirmed the criminal investigation on Wednesday.

Colonel Nguyễn Tiến Nam, deputy head of the province’s police, said officers are collecting evidence in cases where labourers were sent abroad to work illegally since 2016.

On Monday, the Ministry of Public Security and Hà Tĩnh Province’s police visited eight families in Can Lộc District and one in Hồng Lĩnh Town to collect DNA and other evidence for the verification process.

Eighteen families in central Nghệ An Province also reported losing contact with their relatives.

British police sent documents to Việt Nam for verification on four of the 39 victims found dead inside the lorry.

According to Hà Tĩnh Province Department of Labour, Invalids and Social Affairs, the province had more than 72,000 people working abroad under fixed-term contracts between 2009 and 2019.

About 6,600 local labourers on average have gone overseas to work each year. — VNS