The agony of Vietnamese

For up to $50 000 (about R750 000), Vietnamese migrants can get the “VIP package” to Britain – flight, fake passport and even a lawyer – illegal, but billed as safer than cheaper overland routes by people smugglers who provide a menu of options for those trying to reach the UK.

Details of well-oiled smuggling routes spanning Vietnam to Europe have come under renewed scrutiny after 39 people were found dead in a truck in Britain.

Initially identified as Chinese, many are now believed to be Vietnamese after families came forward saying they feared their relatives were in the refrigerated trailer.

The nature of their journey depends on how much money their families can stump up.

Faster, comfortable and supposedly safer, the “VIP package” goes for as much as $50 000 – compared to about $15 000 for socalled “grass” overland journey, according to several experts.

The VIP deal offers travel documents and flights to Europe, often to France, Germany or Spain, before the final passage into the UK.

“They put you in contact directly with a group in France that helps you at that end,” said Chung Pham, who works with Locate International, a UK-based group that helps to find missing Vietnamese migrants in Britain.

Once in the UK, they are even provided with Vietnamese lawyers and translators in the event they are caught by police.

Britain has long been a prime destination for Vietnamese migrants, thanks to well-entrenched criminal networks offering work – though often at lower salaries than promised.

Families sell land or take on huge loans for the journeys, believing the investment will eventually pay itself back several times over.

The family of Hoang van Tiep believes he was one of the 39 who died in the truck in Britain.

Smugglers promised them that $13 000 would secure his safe passage for the final leg of his journey from France into the country.

“I heard he would go on a VIP route, in a four-seater car. But they lied to us,” the 18-year-old’s mother Hoang Thi Ai said from their home in Dien Thinh commune in central Nghe An province.

The people found in the truck last week were likely a mix of VIP and regular passengers, said Pham, based on information she received about the fees they paid.

Pham said for those without the cash, or credit access to secure VIP trips, journeys are often longer – and riskier.

I heard he would go on a VIP route, in a four-seater car. But they lied to us.

Hoang Thi Ai

Mother of Hoang van Tiep, who is believed to have died