A boy found in a suitcase at the Port of Dover in the United Kingdom on Wednesday led to the arrest of a Romanian man on charges of attempted smuggling, according to The Guardian.
Andrei Iancu, 20, was charged after UK Border Force officials found the Vietnamese boy, believed to be 16, in the suitcase, which was in the trunk of a car, at about 8:30 a.m., the newspaper said.
The Independent wrote that a car, a silver Skoda Octavia, was being searched after entering the United Kingdom from France when the discovery was made. The boy inside the suicide was initially reported in critical condition, The Independent said.
The UK Border Force told The Guardian, though, that the boy's condition had improved.
Iancu remained in custody by British officials and he was expected to appear in magistrate court, The Guardian reported. The Independent said that the smuggling charges were authorized by the Crown Prosecution Service.
According to a 2015 Trafficking in Persons Report from the U.S. State Department, the United Kingdom is a source, transit, and destination country for people subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor, including domestic servitude.
The report said children and men, mostly from Vietnam and China, are compelled to work in cannabis cultivation in the United Kingdom and many are held in debt bondage. The report added that most foreign trafficking victims there come from Africa, Asia, and Eastern Europe.
The state department report said that top countries of origin of those who had been trafficked into the country included Albania, Nigeria, Vietnam, Romania, and Slovakia.
The report said UK and foreign adults and children had been forced into criminal behavior, including drug production and sale and theft during trafficking.
The state department said that the UK government has engaged in a wide range of anti-trafficking prevention efforts, including anti-slavery laws, working with non-governmental agencies, and maintaining an anti-trafficking working group including government and civil society representatives.
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