28-10-24, 08:29
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#68
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STOP Migrants: Smuggler Reveals Operation to Bring Vietnamese to UK
Prolific Smuggler Reveals Operation to Bring Vietnamese to UK
A prolific Vietnamese people smuggler, who entered the UK illegally this year in a small boat, has told the BBC he forges visa documents for other Vietnamese who plan to make the same crossing.
Dark Reality For Vietnamese People Smuggled Into The UK
BBC 28 OCT 2024
The man, whom we are calling Thanh, is now claiming UK asylum and told us he has spent almost 20 years - his entire adult life - in the smuggling industry.
Smugglers JAILED
He has been in prison, led a gang working on the northern coast of France, and claims to have helped more than 1,000 people to risk their lives to cross the Channel.
The self-confessed criminal met the BBC at a secret location to share detailed information about the mechanics of the international smuggling industry.
A Very Lucrative Business
Thanh walks into the room cautiously, dark eyes moving fast as if searching for possible exit routes. A small, neat, quietly authoritative figure in a black polo neck.
After months of phone calls and one brief meeting, the interview takes place on a grey day in a small hotel room, in a northern English town that we are choosing not to name here.
We decided there was a strong public interest in hearing about Thanhs life in the smuggling trade, which could only be secured in return for agreeing to keep his identity confidential. He fears being recognised not only by the British authorities but by Vietnamese criminals in the UK.
Vietnam emerged in the first months of this year - suddenly and unexpectedly - as the largest single source of migrants seeking to cross the Channel to the UK illegally in small boats.
Many Vietnamese migrants have cited failing businesses and debts at home for their decision to seek work in the UK. Their first step, experts have suggested, is often to access Europe by taking advantage of a legal work visa system in Hungary and other parts of Eastern Europe.
This is where Thanhs forgery operation comes in, he says. He helps create the fake paperwork needed to get the legitimate work visas.
I cant justify breaking the law. But its a very lucrative business,Thanh said calmly, insisting he doesnt provide forgeries for people seeking UK visas.
We know from our interviews with Vietnamese smugglers and their clients that people pay between $15,000 and $20,000 to travel from Vietnam to mainland Europe and then to cross the Channel.
It is a dangerous business. More than 50 people have been killed crossing the Channel in small boats already this year, making 2024 the deadliest on record. For the first time, the figures include one Vietnamese.
When our team first made contact with Thanh in mainland Europe earlier this year, we knew he was going to attempt to get to the UK with other Vietnamese. He later let us know he had crossed the Channel from northern France, in a small boat.
Thanh told us he had first flown from Vietnam to Hungary on a legitimate visa - although he had acquired it using forged documents.
He had then flown on to Paris and stayed for a few days in a safe house, organised by a Vietnamese smuggling gang on the citys outskirts. Soon after then, he was taken in a group by minibus to the coast and, finally, put in the hands of one of the Kurdish gangs that control the small boat crossings.
But the Vietnamese passengers pay three or four times more money to the gangs handling the crossing routes, he told us, so we get the advantage of being given a place more quickly
In fact, our sources suggest the Vietnamese pay roughly twice the usual rate.
Yes. A Lie. I Was Not Trafficked
Thanh asked for asylum when he was interviewed by a British immigration official - explaining he had left Vietnam because he had got into debt to gangsters when his business failed. His life, he said, was in danger.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qu2RRM0XTXQ&t=89s
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