Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
Gang smuggled me to Britain for £16k
We find village mourning after Essex lorry fatalities
A SURVIVOR of a trafficking gang has told how he paid them £16,000 to get from a tiny village in Vietnam to a curry shop in Birmingham, where he earned “untold riches”.
After 39 people died in a refrigerated lorry in Essex, Nguyen Dung tells me: “Never do you expect to be put in a frozen coffin, but the potential rewards outweigh the risks.
“For those few who don’t make it, hundreds, if not thousands, do.”
Sitting in the relative luxury of his brick-built home in the hamlet of Ha Tinh in Nghe An province, 32-year-old Nguyen reveals how he worked in the Birmingham restaurant for two years.
A raid by immigration officials then put an end to his “dream life” and he was deported back to Vietnam.
But Nguyen says: “I earned in two years in Britain what would take me 20 years in Vietnam.
“The paddy fields that once provided me with a living now stand in stagnant water as we drown in a mountain of debt. The only way out is to risk our lives and try to reach the UK, where the money can support all our families and pay off our debts.”
Nguyen spoke to me as it was revealed that the family of a teenage boy fear he is the youngest victim of the tragedy in Essex.
The sister of 15-year-old Nguyen Huy Hung has told how communications with her brother ended on October 22, the day before the bodies were discovered.
She posted on Facebook: “On Monday evening, my brother left France for the UK, and we haven’t been able to contact him since then.”
The father of another victim revealed he was told of his death by the traffickers he had paid to get his son to Britain.
That does not surprise Nguyen, who tells me: “The planning of these gangs is military-like. They know when and where everyone is at any given time and that is why it is the traffickers, not the police, who told the families last week that their loved-ones did not make it.”
Nguyen was smuggled to Hanoi in 2011 then flown to the Czech Republic
on a tourist visa for £4,600. Before landing in Europe, he had to pay another £800.
After a week in Prague, Nguyen was told to pay another £1,000 and go to Germany, where he was smuggled over the border in a minivan.
An attempt to claim asylum failed and after 18 months he fled Dresden and his family paid a further £9,000 to smuggle him across the Channel into the UK.
He says: “People seem to assume it is the gangs who seek us out. It’s not the case. Families in my area decide which of them should be sent to the UK before they all raise money to pay traffickers.
“Those that died last week are saddled with huge debts and the UK for them
was the only way out.” He was deported in late 2017, and his family are still enjoying the spoils of his time in the UK, living in their new brick house. But Nguyen is still in the grip of gangsters who run this area, where 25 of the Essex victims were from. As we speak, he receives a chilling call, threatening violence if he continues to talk about the trafficking network. away from us is the home of grieving relatives of Essex lorry victim Le Van Ha, 30.
The family reveal how Le Van Ha was taken from Ha Tinh to Saigon, then Malaysia, Turkey, Greece and France before he was placed in the refrigerated trailer.
Another victim, Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, travelled through Russia in then Ukraine, Germany and France before boarding the lorry.
Everyone in the hamlet seems to know someone who has made the journey using what they call “the line”.
Walking through the streets, it is clear why families send loved ones on the perilous journey to the UK.
Throughout the neighbourhood are two and three-storey houses, built within the last decade with money earned overseas. Some are next to the owners’ original rickety homes.
Nguyen Dinh Sat mourns his son Nguyen Dinh Tu in the shadow of the palatial home he had built.
Last year, after local farming collapsed, 26-year-old Dinh Tu travyards elled to Romania, working illegally in a factory for £400 per month.
That money failed to cover the loan he had taken out to build his house and the debts mounted as his wife Hoang Thi Thuong struggled to feed their one-year-old daughter.
He hoped a move to the UK would give him the income he needed, and so his family paid £11,000 to smugglers.
His father tells me the gang had trafficked his son from Vietnam to Romania, Germany and France before sending him to his death in the trailer.
It was the traffickers who broke the news of his son’s death to 70-year-old Dinh Sat. Sitting next to a shrine dedi2017, cated to his son in the house where he had planned to raise his family, Dinh Sat tells me: “He is gone now. There is nothing left of him. He died.”
Officials here are collecting DNA from relatives to identify victims, but families want loved one’s bodies back.
Dinh Sat says: “He had a mountain of debt on the house and was frightened the bank would take it and our land, that is why he went to Europe.
“Never did I think he would be put at such grave risk. Not only have I lost my son, but we could lose everything my family has worked so hard for over the generations.”