遺体・遺灰を母国に移送するためのローンの提示

　エセックス・ローリー事件のその後。ベトナム政府は遺族に、この事件で死去した親族の遺体または遺灰を国に移送するためにディスカウントした料金のローンを提示。

BBC Essex lorry deaths: Vietnam offers grieving families loans to return bodies 18 Nov 2019

「Grieving families in Vietnam have been offered loans to cover the costs of repatriating their loved ones' bodies in the wake of the Essex lorry incident, the BBC has learnt.」

「Consent forms seen by the BBC say: "I, on behalf of the family, pledge to pay back all relevant expenses that the authorities have made in advance in order to repatriate them from the UK."」

　何しろ密入国の犯罪を犯した・犯しつつあった・意図したわけでもあり、全額国費というわけにはまあなかなかいくまい。とはいえ、家族を思って犯した罪でもあり、少なくとも特段、誰かに危害を及ぼしたわけでもない。遺体・遺灰引取りに一定の額を課するのは、そりゃまあ妥当な落としどころではあろう。

　だがまあ

「Victims' families have been offered a discounted price of 66 million dong (£2,200; $2,840) to repatriate a body or 44 million dong to bring back the ashes, the BBC has learnt.

Families had already taken out loans of up to £40,000 to pay for smuggling their relatives to the UK.」

　そんなお金がほいほい出るようなら、そもそも出稼ぎに行かせてないや！というのも尤もだし、そもそも膨大といっていいほどの額を借金してまで息子・娘を送り出したわけでもある。

　遺族の辛い言葉は続出してはいるようだが、それでもなお、落としどころではあるのだろう。

「Pham Ngoc Tuan, brother of one of the victims. told the BBC's Nga Pham: "We already had to borrow so much money, we had to mortgage what we had. I don't even know if we can borrow anymore."」

「"We have been told the main issue now is money and even though we had to borrow a lot of money to send them away, we may borrow more to bring them home," said Tien Pham, cousin of two victims, in a Facebook live stream.」