39 people. Chinese "nationals", according to media reports. Someone's parent, child, friend. I imagine a face, scanning the blue sky over their hometown. Playing with the family dog for one last time. Savoring dumplings from a loved one. Promising a sweetheart a letter that will never arrive. All the ordinary things these people must have had, in the last hours before they boarded that freezing lorry, their coffin: a coffee, a bun, a joke to calm the nerves. What did they bring with them? Documents, a few photos, a dream of the future, to save up, to send money home, to improve their lives by delivering takeaway or cleaning the houses of people whose difference from them was the arbitrary (heartless!) luck of birth.

<<