The Vietnamese migrants cross the Channel

Thousands of Vietnamese have entered Britain illegally, according to a people smuggler who said arranging such crossings from Vietnam is a “lucrative business”.

Speaking to one BBC According to a reporter, the people smuggler claimed there was “no human trafficking involved” and that the increasing number of people leaving Vietnam for Britain are doing so voluntarily. However, many of them travel under false promises of “reality and opportunity” for jobs in Britain and many end up being trafficked for work for gangs, the broadcaster said.

The number of Vietnamese people who earn illegal crossings to Britain has “expanded” this year, he said Infomigrants. In 2023, 1,306 Vietnamese arrived by sea, but 2,248 crossed the Channel in the first half of 2024 alone. Government data from May showed that immigrants from Vietnam have become the “largest group crossing the Channel illegally”. ITV Newsthe first time this has ever been the case.

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Most of them are “particularly young, many only teenagers,” the spokesperson said The Guardian. But while the number of people crossing by boat has increased dramatically, the numbers arriving from Vietnam are not new. Instead, human smuggling gangs have switched to using ‘boats instead of the back of trucks‘ as a result of the stricter ‘surveillance and policing in ports’ that was introduced after Brexit.

How many Vietnamese cross the Channel?