On illegal Vietnamese immigrants
Since the death of those Vietnamese folks (originally mistaken for being Chinese; how original), bleeding heart liberals have been drip fed the narrative of poor Vietnamese slaves being trafficked to the U.K. to work for evil folks, forced to grow the pernicious ganja. I think that’s a bit too simplistic, and would like to offer the following story of a real lorry Vietnamese that I’ve met.
His name is Vinh. He came to the U.K. a few years ago. It was a treacherous journey that he himself did not quite signed up for. He is one of ten siblings, and he’s the eldest of them all. His parents are uneducated Catholic folks from Nghe An, one of those very poor province of Viet Nam. The thing about Nghe An is that it has a great tradition of sending people abroad, since no one can make a living in the land where nothing grows (Ho Chi Minh is from Nghe An; the man travelled the world and picked up Marxist ideas in France). Vinh is just following a tradition.
On the surface, Vinh’s family doesn’t do too bad for themselves. Vinh went to school, all the way to 9th grade, but whether he learnt anything is debatable; Vietnamese horrible school system push uneducated children upward, through the gauntlets. His father switched to a new car model almost every year, seemingly to keep up the appearance of being prosperous (this is a very important thing in Vietnam; even poor families are socially pressured to project a high esteem outward). In need of money to maintain a large family and a polished surface to society, Vinh’s parents (but most likely his father) sent him to the U.K. to make money, presumably to grow cannabis.
Since the Vietnam War, the Vietnamese diaspora is scattered across the world, establishing themselves in a few signature industries: nail-painting, restaurants (as with all immigrants), and growing cannabis (where it’s illegal and fetches a good profit at least). The Vietnamese illegal network in the U.K. is quite established, with its counterpart throughout Europe and Asia to facilitate a global human smuggling network (not trafficking; Vinh’s family pay for the privilege of being smuggled). Vinh started in Nghe An, travelled to Ha Noi to get on a plane to Korea on a fake Chinese passport (his identity papers are shredded once he got on his first plane; international police can’t know his real identity, otherwise they can track down the criminal network). From Korea he landed near Moscow, then the journey continued on land across the Schengen all the way to Calais. The pan-European trip is remarkably dangerous: jumping on/off moving trains, trekking through forests, evading border guards, or just avoiding literally anyone in general. The journey from Hanoi to Calais took little time, though the endless days of waiting awaited Vinh in the French seaside town.
In an undisclosed camp near Calais, the human smugglers have to wait for the right condition: when would a suitable container which is unlikely to be searched and a friendly driver to boot would appear? It takes months, and in this time Vinh existed in a state of perpetual trench warfare: staying in a muddy hut in the middle of a large forest, eating shit food and shitting in a bucket. When the time came, he was put into a lorry with a couple of other kids his age. The truck made a long journey across the border. The container itself was suffocating and very hot. Vinh describes the lorry journey as never-ending. It was probably the scariest experience of his life: imagine being buried for six hours and having to gasp for breath throughout.
Once the lorry trip was over, Vinh was brought to a safehouse in East London near O2 stadium where he stayed for a couple more weeks, awaiting assignment. They assigned him to work in a nail bar, figuring he didn’t have what it takes yet to be trapped in a basement for months growing weed. The police raid his nail bar a short time after he started working, and now he lives in foster care, unable to work since they refuse to give him the proper paperwork.
Vinh is an incredibly good natured kid, and a true Catholic. He is pushed into extraordinary circumstances due to the fucked up nature of third world countries, and the intransigence of the U.K. government when it comes to illegal immigrant: “Nope, we won’t let you work, but we won’t let you go either. Enjoy this enforced idleness.” But Vinh is not idle. He goes to school, learns English, and works out almost every day. He practices nail-painting on a plastic disembowelled hand, for when the time comes when he can work.
There are many others like him, mainly teenage boys and girls. Smuggled Vietnamese girls usually spend less time in a safehouse and evading police since once they come to the U.K., since they can just walk up to the police and they will take her in and take care of her, put her in a good foster home and provide education (since they presume she’s a victim of sex-trafficking; males are treated with suspicion if they turn up to the police station in the same manner). Vietnamese are engaging in mass cuckoo-bird behaviour: depositing their children in U.K. foster homes, hoping for them to get a job and sending money home. This is a hidden section of society that deserve more attention and compassion from British people. Only with careful examination of causes and effects can we lessen this unnecessary human suffering and utterly inefficient allocation of human resources.
I propose legalising marijuana, pressuring Vietnamese government to dismantle home-grown human smuggling networks, and educating and integrating people who are already smuggled to the U.K.:
- On legalising marijuana: It’s only because of the insanely lucrative nature of this trade that many risk their lives in lorries. If this trade is brought to the light and taxed, the competition will whittle the profits away, and bringing Vietnamese across the world to grow marijuana would become a dumb business move.
- On partnering/threatening/pressuring the VN gov.: The VN gov. know about this, but they let it happen as a pressure valve, a temporary solution for the persistent problem of youth unemployment and poverty. Only by modernising the countryside (family planning, better welfare & skill-education, etc.) and cracking down on the smugglers can we cut the tentacles of the smuggling gangs. Trade deals should include stuff like this.
- On educating & integrating people who’re already here: I see enormous untapped potential in Vinh. This is a guy who risked his life for his family; few of us could say we have done the same. He is quickly learning English, but don’t seem to get the appropriate help. He desperately wants to work, even in McDonalds, but the Home Office won’t let him since they deem him an illegal. Ridiculous. Enforced idleness is an incredibly stupid decision. It will only store up trouble, and unnecessarily prevent the hardest working (even moral) people from joining the workforce. Deportation is not so straight-forward either, as there is an army of do-gooding lawyers whose moral compasses point to keeping Vinh in the U.K.
I hope this clears up the situation for you. This is a real and peculiar situation many Vietnamese are in, and I hope it ends one day.