Struggling to live in European paradise

We arrive at a big restaurant in central London. The owner is British-Vietnamese, a person who wishes to remain unnamed, and confesses that he has spent roughly 30 years there developing the business.

He employs 20 people, most of whom are from Asia. Half of the restaurant staff is Vietnamese.

They have immigrated to England in many ways, both legal and illegal. But they have the same purpose: to seek an opportunity to transform their lives.

Besides the restaurant’s owner, it is not difficult for us to meet Vietnamese people who have become wealthy through their honest work. Couple Trần Văn Sử and Lê Thị Mỹ Lệ are among this group.

Su said he came to the country without a cent in his pocket in 1980. He and his wife now operate four restaurants serving Vietnamese food in London. Their restaurants are always crowded with customers.

Su said that most Vietnamese here work hard, but some wish to make a great fortune in a short period of time, so they decide to participate in illegal jobs.

Deadly job

Cultivating hashish trees is one of the popular illegal jobs that bring huge profits that several Vietnamese have chosen to pursue. They do it in spite of the fact that they are breaking the law, and ignore the danger involved.

They call the crop the ‘money tree’ because it can bring in huge amounts of cash.

A young man who goes by the name Tinh confessed that poverty drove him to planting hashish trees. He earns GBP300,000 to GBP500,000 (US$470,625 – 784,375) after harvesting 100 square meters of hashish. It takes around three to six months to cultivate the trees.

Although they earn a lot of money, these growers are often abused and exploited by local residents.

Local people don’t plant the trees directly, instead they hire illegally immigrated Vietnamese to do the job for them. When local authorities discover what is going on, the immigrants have to take all responsibility.

“If we are discovered, we are sent back to Vietnam immediately,” Tinh said.

Thing are simple when they have to face the police. However, Tính uncovered his back and showed countless scars on it.

He said this is the result of several clashes with local gangs who tried to rob his products after the crops were harvested.

When it comes time to harvest, people who have information on the schedule wait for the process to be completed and then steal the products.

The robbers include both gangs and local residents who hire the Vietnamese immigrants to take care of the farm because they don’t want to pay wages as negotiated.

“In order to put the money into our pocket, we must pay a very expensive price. It’s our lives,” said Tinh, who has been jailed for five years for doing the job.

Fortunately, he was not sent back to Vietnam because he came to England under a family reunion form. However, he has yet to obtain British citizenship, though he has decided to stop working with hashish.

Few people are brave enough to quit like Tinh though, because profits from the trees are large.

A Hai Phong native called Long said that he was arrested twice for planting hashish trees and was sent back to Vietnam, but he tried to return illegally.

Long explained that he had to pursue the illicity work because he faces a big debt back home.

“I tried perform one successful ‘mission’ to get the money needed to pay off all of my debt. I should not have borrowed money for planting hashish trees here. Now I have no way to leave the job,” he said while trying to turn away to hide his tears.

Illegal immigration

Nam, of Nghe An Province, came to England illegally by way of the Czech Republic and France.

“My family lives under the poverty line in Vietnam. I have to feed four children but the crops there always failed. I decided to borrow VND150 million (US$7,200) to go to the Czech Republic to work.”

“After four years of working in the country, friends told me to immigrate to England by travelling to France. Thinking of my wife and children in Vietnam, I decided to undertake the risky trip. I had to pay the smuggling ring 2,500 euros (US$3,072), and they agreed to bring me to England,” Nam recalled.

Last autumn, Nam went to France. He was asked to throw away all of his personal papers so that British police could not trace his origin. If the police could not find out where he was from, they would hold him a few hours and then release him.

His first mission failed. He was discovered by police dogs as he was hiding in the van that would bring him from France to England.

He endured three similar failures before he finally had the opportunity to step onto England soil on his fourth trip.

“I will never forget this trip for the rest of my life. Lying in a van, I hid in a plastic bag so that scanners at the border checkpoint wouldn’t discover me. Fortunately, police dogs were also unable to find me in the van,” Nam recalled.

We followed Nam to his “house” in London, which is nothing more than a ten-square-meter room.

He showed us a picture of his wife and children on his bed, saying “I look at the picture before going to bed every night. The picture is my only motive for me to overcome difficulty here. I can suffer everything as long as my wife and children live a happy life,” Nam said.

He works from eight to ten hours a day, and every month, Nam sends home GBP1,500 (US$2,353). “This is a lot of money, and it helps my wife and children live happily. Even in a dream, I cannot see that amount of money in Vietnam.”

In the restaurant where he works, there are two other Vietnamese workers. They also came to London illegally.

Life without a future

Of course, not everyone has good luck like Nam. Several people have successfully passed the border check point, only to be arrested when they traveled further into England.

They are not likely to be sent back to Vietnam, and they can go out and work, but they are unable to obtain any personal papers, even if they have lived in the country for ten years.

Every few weeks they have to visit a police station to report that they are working a legal job in the country.