The route that brings illegal Vietnamese immigrants into the UK

An investigation by a British newspaper found that many Vietnamese people apply for student visas to Malta, only to become victims of complex human trafficking rings into Europe.

British media reported that on February 16, British authorities discovered seven immigrants believed to be Vietnamese citizens in a truck at Newhaven ferry terminal, Newhaven town, Lewes district, East Sussex county.

The incident comes just a day after a British court sentenced Valeriu Iordatii, a Romanian driver who smuggled a group of seven people, including six Vietnamese citizens, into the UK illegally in a cramped compartment on the roof of a lorry. These incidents show that the flow of illegal immigrants into the UK has not ended, despite the tragedy of 39 Vietnamese people dying in a container in 2019.

In an investigation conducted in late 2023, a reporter from the British ITV News station approached a young Vietnamese man on the island of Malta, a famous peaceful tourist destination in the Mediterranean, to learn about the journey of Vietnamese people finding their way to Europe and towards the UK.

Malta study abroad advertisement from the agency where the young man used the service. Photo: ITV News

This person said he had to borrow $16,000 to pay an agent in Vietnam to get a legal student visa to Malta. He and hundreds of others in Malta seem to have the same purpose when coming to the island: to go to other European countries such as Germany and the UK to find work.

"Before that, I didn't even know where Malta was. The agent said that applying for a student visa to Malta was a good option to create a corridor for us to Europe," the young man told ITV News. "They said I would go to Malta, study English for a few months, then I could easily move to another European country to work and send money home."

He said he had to mortgage his property and land to borrow money to pay the agent, with the assurance that he would pay off all the debt after only a few years of working in the UK.

The agency advertises online its services for Malta student visas. The process is legal, but it would be illegal if it were used to trick visa applicants into traveling to European countries.

In the past two years, Malta has issued visas to 265 Vietnamese people to study at MCAST, a local college. Of these, only two have returned home, the remaining 263 have “disappeared”.

Some may have gone to Belgium or Switzerland, but ITV News sources said many had gone to the UK. MCAST has stopped issuing visas to Vietnamese students.

Malta, along with Hungary, Romania, and Latvia, are considered transit points used by human trafficking groups to illegally bring Vietnamese people into Europe.

British reporters discovered gang members involved in smuggling Vietnamese people through European countries, with France as the destination, which is considered a gathering point for people crossing the English Channel into the UK.

“Does anyone know what country we are in?” a Vietnamese voice can be heard on a vehicle carrying illegal immigrants in a video secretly filmed by an ITV News reporter. “No idea,” another person replies.

An investigative reporter listened to the conversation in the Russian dialect of eastern Ukraine between the two traffickers in the cockpit and realized they were discussing the next vehicle to use to reach France.

From there, migrants cross the English Channel to reach Britain. Many choose to cross in small, rickety boats. Migrant boats capsize in these waters frequently.

Trafficking gangs are believed to be making huge profits by supplying cheap labour to nail salons, restaurants and casinos in the UK, where migrants are forced to work long hours for wages well below the legal minimum.

In the UK, they are often crammed into cramped apartments with other illegal immigrants. Their rent is deducted from their wages. Without identification papers, they are also unable to use official services to transfer money to Vietnam.

Gang members take a significant cut of the money migrants send home. With thousands of Vietnamese sending money each week, gang members reap huge profits to run their organized crime networks.

Location of England, France and the English Channel. Graphic: Britannica

In Malta, an island that is part of a network that brings Vietnamese people to Europe, authorities are not prepared for this situation, said Mark Micallef, an expert at the Global Initiative to Combat Transnational Organized Crime (GITOC).

“This is probably the first time the island has seen anything like this,” said Micallef, who has spent 20 years studying human trafficking on Malta’s borders. “This is the definition of transnational, organised crime.”

In 2023, the Maltese police raided and arrested a number of Vietnamese people carrying fake passports, even "borrowed" passports. Chi Diaz, a Vietnamese living in Malta who helped those arrested, met a young woman in prison.

"She wants to go to the UK to work, because her brother or sister is doing nails there. Even if they are deported, these people will definitely come back and find another way to the UK, because they need to earn money urgently to pay off their debts," said Ms. Chi.

Valletta harbour in Malta, September 29, 2023. Photo: AFP

Debt in their home country is considered a burden that prevents many Vietnamese migrants from returning, because it means they could lose their home or mortgage if they cannot pay the debt.

Some agents in Vietnam said they are trying to find a legal way to migrate to the UK. According to them, the UK is the strictest and most difficult country to reach for workers, but it is also a promised land, only lacking a legal way.

"The reality is that many migrants still try to come to the UK despite the risks. Why not create legal routes for them to travel safely? We know that the UK is short of human resources in the social care sector as the population ages. We can do these jobs," said a representative of an agency.

"The lack of legal opportunities only pushes them into the deadly paths of human trafficking gangs. For them, going abroad to work is a chance to change their lives, so if getting on a boat across the English Channel is the only option, they will do so without hesitation," said ITV News reporter Peter Smith.

Duc Trung (According to ITV News )

Source: https://vnexpress.net/tuyen-duong-dua-nguoi-viet-nhap-cu-trai-phep-vao-anh-4661184.html