It was 25 years ago today that a grim discovery at Dover docks laid bare the human cost of illegal migration - a cost that continues to be paid in the waters off Kent to this day.

Fifty-eight Chinese men and women were found dead in the back of a lorry on June 18, 2000. They had suffocated in an airtight container during a desperate attempt to reach the UK. Only two survived.

Today, it remains one of the worst losses of life linked to human trafficking on British soil - and yet, it is largely forgotten. A short entry on Wikipedia and a discreet plaque in Dover are among the few public reminders of what happened.

But its legacy lives on in a different form.

Now, the method of entry has changed. Refrigerated lorries and freight containers have given way to inflatable dinghies. And while the route is different, the dangers are not. In recent years, dozens have drowned trying to cross the English Channel - a crisis that has become a near-weekly reality on Kent’s coast.

The Dover tragedy unfolded when customs officers stopped Dutch driver Perry Wacker’s tomato-laden lorry. What should have been a routine inspection turned into a horror scene.

Freight supervisor Barry Betts and assistant Darren Bailey began unloading the pallets when they spotted something strange – a set of wooden screens behind the tomatoes.

A torch beam lit up what they thought were fallen boxes. Instead, it revealed a sea of motionless bodies. Then, movement. A young man, topless, weakly tapping on the side of the container.

He and one other man were the only ones still alive. The rest had died in the sweltering heat, after Wacker, to avoid detection, had shut the air vent before leaving Zeebrugge.

Their final hours were spent screaming, kicking at the doors, and clawing through tomatoes in vain attempts to escape.

They had each paid about £20,000 – a fortune in their home provinces – for what they hoped would be safe passage to a better life. Instead, they were crammed into an unventilated trailer for nine hours on one of the hottest days of the year.

The 56 men and four women began their journey in Beijing, each guided by members of a notorious “snakehead” gang – criminal networks who profit from smuggling people from poor communities in Asia into wealthier Western nations.

They travelled in small groups using their own passports, having secured permission to fly to Belgrade, the capital of the former Yugoslavia.

From there, the carefully orchestrated route took them to a safe house, where their identities were stripped.

They were then issued with stolen Asian passports and moved covertly through Hungary, Austria and France before arriving in the Netherlands.

By the time they reached Rotterdam, their names had been replaced with code numbers and they wore identical uniforms - grey T-shirts and black trousers.

There, in a warehouse, they were loaded into Wacker’s tomato lorry - 60 people crammed into the hot container alongside four buckets of water that would quickly run out.

Only two would survive - Su Di Ke, 20, and Ke Shi Guang, 22 – who would later describe the terrifying final hours inside the sealed trailer during Wacker’s trial.

Mr Ke recalled: "[Everyone] started panicking after about two to three hours because the vent was shut and there was no air.

“Some people removed tomatoes and tried to kick open the doors. There was also a lot of shouting and screaming, but nobody came to help."

While panic spread in the container below, Wacker – who had paid cash for the ferry – was upstairs watching films and enjoying a meal, later claiming he had no idea what, or who, he was carrying.

A jury didn’t believe him. He was convicted of manslaughter and jailed for 14 years.

His interpreter, Ying Guo, was sentenced to six years for conspiring to smuggle immigrants. Nine others linked to the operation were also jailed.

The scale and coordination of the gang shocked many. But perhaps more shocking is how little has changed.

In 2019, the bodies of 39 Vietnamese migrants – including women and children – were discovered in a lorry container in Essex.

Like the Dover case, the vehicle had travelled from Zeebrugge. Like Dover, the victims had suffocated. And like Dover, it was later revealed the lorry was one of several making repeated crossings in an organised, lucrative trafficking operation.

The main difference today is visibility. Lorries are no longer the primary mode of transport – small boats are. And while authorities may intercept some on arrival, many others are lost at sea.

In the past three years alone, at least 80 people have drowned trying to cross the English Channel in dinghies.

Some victims remain unidentified. Some were children.

Speaking after the 2019 Essex deaths, one trafficking expert told KentOnline it was likely there had been other fatal crossings that had gone unnoticed – both by authorities and the public.

“There may have been incidents like Dover and Grays that were simply never discovered,” they said. “And there will almost certainly be more.”

As the UK continues to wrestle with how to manage its borders, the tragedies persist, but the route has changed. What was once a hidden, suffocating journey in the back of a lorry is now a perilous, overcrowded crossing in a rubber boat.

Dr Razia Shariff, CEO of Kent Refugee Action Network (KRAN), said: "It is incomprehensible that 25 years on from this tragedy, people are still being exploited by smugglers and lives are still being lost.

"Creating barriers to entry simply increases the stakes and the risks in this continuing and unfolding crisis. The only viable solution is safe and legal routes in the form of humanitarian - or refugee - visas.

"This model has been successfully implemented in countries such as Australia, allowing refugees to apply for visas from outside the country. Importantly, these visas could be introduced in alignment with the government's proposed cap system, ensuring compassion and security work hand in hand.

"The anniversary of the 58 deaths falls this year in Refugee Week. With its theme of ‘community as a superpower’, we call on all in the community to remember those lost in 2000 and all those lost since."