Riots ramp up risks for illegal Asian immigrants
Vietnam among top 10 countries for undocumented arrivals, data shows
Riots by far-right mobs whipped up by misinformation and festering anger at immigration are sweeping across Britain, bringing fresh jeopardy to the Vietnamese and other Asian migrants trying to reach the country in their thousands each year.
Between 2018 and 2023, more than 3,500 Vietnamese people arrived undocumented on “small boats” across the channel separating France from southern England, according to UK Home Office data, putting Vietnam in the top 10 countries of illegal arrivals by sea.
Afghans, Iranians, Turks and Iraqis lead the number of boat arrivals.
All of their journeys are laced with risk. From long treacherous travel through Europe, dangerous boat crossings in dinghies from France – or hidden in lorries – to sham marriages to British citizens and exploitation on arrival in lowpaid, or unpaid, work in nail bars and farms.
Once there, hostility is on the rise, including the threat of deportation by immigration authorities in a country where “small boats” have become shorthand by rightwing politicians and media for a nation being “overrun” by migrants through open borders.
Vietnamese agents moving people from poor parts of the Southeast Asian country to Britain have said it is no longer worth it, or are warning their customers of the extreme risks ahead if they are determined to make the journey.
“At this time you should not go to the UK. It’s a waste of money,” one agent said, requesting anonymity given the illegality of his business.
“I just helped someone return to Vietnam from there. I am no longer taking people to the UK. If they can’t make it and I still take their money, I will lose my credibility.”
The anti-immigrant riots across Britain in recent days led by far-right mobs were sparked by misinformation across social media, with some posts falsely naming the killer of three young girls in a stabbing spree last Monday in Southport as a Muslim illegal migrant who arrived by boat.
The claim was swiftly debunked by the Home Office, but that has failed to douse the violence as mobs attacked police stations, torched cars and targeted asylum seeker accommodation throughout the weekend.
On Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned “far-right thuggery” after violent mobs in the northern town of Rotherham attempted to set fire to a hotel housing asylum seekers, warning those who had taken part in riots would “regret” their actions.
His weeks-old Labour government has inherited the issue of “small boat” arrivals.
It swiftly scrapped an expensive and much-pilloried scheme under the preceding Conservative administration to deport irregular migrants to Rwanda.
But the new Home Secretary Yvette Cooper has already turned to get-tough messaging on illegal migration.
Vietnamese arrivals are specifically in the firing line, with car washes, nail bars and beauty salons where many work on low pay facing raids in a summer crackdown.
Forty-six “foreign criminals and immigration offenders” were deported to East Timor and Vietnam on July 25, the Home Office said, in the first returns to Vietnam since 2022.
A deal was penned between Westminster and Hanoi to increase cooperation to smash people smuggling to Britain.
But Vietnamese TikTok remained awash with images of Vietnamese migrants in France pulling dinghies along muddy sands in attempts to cross the channel, or purported undocumented migrants dragging luggage through sodden parts of England once they arrived.
Vietnamese migrants and agents said the route to the UK started with legitimate arrivals by plane in Hungary, Poland or Austria. Some stay and secure documents – legally or otherwise – to work in Eastern Europe. But those with family or community networks offering jobs in Britain push on with a 10-hour bus journey to the French coast.
“They wait in a group of about a dozen in a hostel for about a week, before starting the journey to England,” said one migrant in Europe who gave his name as Trung, from Ha Tinh province.
The risks multiply as the police and border forces ply the coasts, while crossing is extremely dangerous and the price tag of around ¤5,000 (HK$42,580) means taking on loans for uncertain promises of riches ahead.