MercoPress. South Atlantic News Agency

“VIP packages to Britain” for illegal migrants include fake passport and lawyer

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

For up to US$50,000, Vietnamese migrants can get the “VIP package” to Britain - flight, a 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 US$50,000 - compared to around US$15,000 for so-called “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,” 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.

“It shows you how organized and systematized they are,” Pham said.

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.

The poor central provinces of Vietnam are riddled with people smugglers and brokers with underground contacts stretching across the world.

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