The Government and people of Viet Nam would like to extend condolences to families of the 39 people, who were found dead in Essex, whatever the nationalities the victims have, said Deputy Foreign Minister Nguyen Quoc Dung. 

Dung made the statement during his phone call with UK Parliamentary Under Secretary of State (Minister for Asia and the Pacific) Heather Wheeler this afternoon.

Dung suggested the UK side to support deployment of citizen protection measures in case Vietnamese are among victims of the tragedy.

Meanwhile Wheeler affirmed that the UK is trying its best to identify nationality of the victims and stands ready to cooperate with relevant parties to quickly complete the identification process.

Both sides expressed their shock at the incident and strongly condemned human trafficking.

They also affirmed their determination to combat trans-national organized crime while calling on the international community to strengthen cooperation in fighting this kind of crime./.