Inside the sick Vietnamese slave trade as desperate migrants work 60-hour weeks in UK nail salons to ‘pay off’ smugglers
IT'S the ultimate status symbol in Vietnam to have a loved one move to the UK so they can get a "dream" job and send back money - yet the reality couldn't be more different.
Thousands of Vietnamese slaves are working 60-hour weeks for little or no pay in cramped and unsafe British nail salons, after being duped by the callous trafficking gangs who smuggled them in.
Dreams of "better life" laid bare with lorry deaths
Despite paying up to £39,000 for a "VIP" trip to Britain, the migrants find themselves trapped in the grips of evil slavemasters, with some even being pushed into prostitution and drug farming.
Their idealistic dreams of a "better life" in the UK have now been laid bare after 39 migrants were found dead in a blood-stained lorry trailer in Essex last week, with many feared to be Vietnamese.
Among the suspected victims are Anna Bui Thi Nhung, 19, Nguyen Dinh Luong, 20, and Nguyen Dinh Tu, 27 - all of whom had dreamed of working in one of our estimated 30,000 nail salons.
Yet those Vietnamese migrants who are lucky enough to survive the journey often find themselves in terrible conditions.
“I ended up working very long hours, earning just enough money for noodles each night," recalls Vietnamese former salon worker Li Tan, who survived the perilous journey to Britain when she was 15 and was forced to work as a prostitute when her workplace turned into a brothel at night.
"I was raped and sexually abused by different men who would come to the nail bar."
To keep their young victims quiet, gangmasters often threaten them with deportation.
"[Victims are] told 'you’re illegal in this country. If you run away or say anything about what happened to you, then they’re going to deport you back to your country'," Laura Durán, of the charity Every Child Protected Against Trafficking (ECPAT) UK, tells Sun Online.
18,000 smuggled into Europe every year
With nail salons now a staple on Britain's high streets, offering plenty of low-skilled labour roles, it's perhaps unsurprising that many Vietnamese people see them as a ticket to a better life.
But this makes them easy prey for vile trafficking networks, who are thought to illegally smuggle around 18,000 Vietnamese citizens including children, to Europe each year.
They lure their desperate victims with false promises of lucrative jobs in cash-only nail bars and cannabis farms, assuring them they can change their own and their family's fortunes.
The sick trade has become so prevalent that over the past decade a holding camp in Northern France has been dubbed 'Vietnam City', based on the huge number of Vietnamese migrants waiting to reach Britain.
"My family back paid someone and they got me this far," a Vietnamese man at another refugee camp, located slightly further north, told The Sun on Sunday.
“People in England will get me a job when I get there. It’s scary when you think what happened [in Essex] but that’s the chance you take and I am ready to risk my life."
Pham Thi Tra My, 26, texted her mum, "I'm dying because I can't breathe"
Dangerous forest treks
For migrants with enough life savings, they can buy a "VIP" trip to the UK - which costs nearly £40,000 and involves a flight on someone else's passport, or a doctored diplomatic one, to Europe.
Or the cheaper option - so-called "grass" packages costing up to £12,000 - involves a less direct route to Europe that can take several months and hundreds of miles on foot and by road.
Often, migrants first travel to China or Russia before moving West (in 2017, some 43,000 Vietnamese , with many then travelling to Western Europe).
Other popular connecting countries including France, Germany and Poland.
"They go through jungles, forests and they're kept in wooden huts," immigration lawyer Harjap Bhangal tells Sun Online, describing a migrant's typical, dangerous journey to Britain.
"The gangs are ruthless. If someone is slowing down the group the smugglers will kill them."
Victims targeted in poverty-stricken areas
While Vietnam as a whole has seen a reduction in poverty, not all regions have been affected equally - so the majority of migrants come from a select few poor provinces.
In Nghe An and Ha Tinh - where many lorry victims are feared to be from - the countryside is dotted with billboards for labour export firms advertising jobs or study overseas.
"Almost everyone round here has a relative overseas," local Bui Thac, whose nephew Bui Phan Thang is suspected to be among those found dead last week, told Reuters.
"Young people must find ways to work abroad because it's difficult to work at home."
Exploited by salon bosses
For those who survive the horror passage to Britain, their nightmare's far from over.
While plenty of the country's nail salons and grooming parlours are reputable businesses, police say the industry has become a hotbed of labour exploitation.
"Labour exploitation in nail bars is one of the most prevalent areas of modern day slavery in the UK," Hardeep Walker, of the National Crime Agency (NCA), told our Stamp Out Slavery campaign this year.
He added: "The salon conditions are usually quite small and cramped and can have a strong smell of chemicals. The exploiter will be present in the salon, often acting as a front of house member of staff who meets and greets customers and takes payment whilst keeping a watchful eye over the workers."
Even when their shift is finally over, the workers have no escape - because they tend to sleep in rooms above or attached to salons, and have no money of their own to spend.
The Sun wants to Stamp out Slavery
Slavery takes a variety of forms, but most commonly forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic work or forced criminal activity.
The Home Office estimated that there are 13,000 people held in slavery in the UK, with the Global Slavery Index suggesting the figure could be as many as 136,000.
The UK recognised a staggering 5,145 victims from 116 countries in 2017, including adults who had been used for organ harvesting and children that were forced into sexual exploitation.
Our Stamp Out Slavery campaign, in conjunction with Co-op, has highlighted the plight of some of Britain's slaves working in car washes and nail salons, farms and factories all over the UK.
We called on the government to extend support for Britain's slaves beyond the current 45-day limit and backing Lord McColl's private members Bill demanding support be extended to a year.
In April this year, a high court judge suspended the paltry time limit and said it should be subject to a full judicial review.
Caged in landmark case
In 2016, two Bath nail bar owners were locked up for five and four years respectively in a landmark case, after forcing young Vietnamese women to work for no pay in UK salons.
Thu Huong Nguyen and Viet Hoany Nguyen trafficked the girls between salons "according to demand" and exploited them "in plain sight", the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) said.
But while they didn't pay one victim - with a second earning just £30 a month - a search of Thu Huong Nguyen's home uncovered £60,000 in £50 notes hidden inside a teddy bear.
The same year, 280 nail salons were raided by police across London, Cardiff and Edinburgh, resulting in 97 arrests, in a bid to tackle the epidemic.
It came six years after the extradition of gangster Do Huan Nguyen, who smuggled more than 50 Vietnamese people to the UK to work in drug factories and nail salons.
Last year, more than 700 potential victims of trafficking from Vietnam were identified, ECPAT tells Sun Online - although the real number is far higher because most go undocumented.
Of those identified, 320 were children.
Today, many victims continue to work in exploitative British nail salons, often avoiding eye contact and conversation (most speak little English) as they apply coats of glossy polish.
But these salons' floor-to-ceiling windows and bright lights provide a colourful cover for a dark, sickening secret.
Worried your nail bar is using slaves? These are the signs to look out for
What do employees look like?
- Do they appear withdrawn and neglected or unwilling to engage? Do they appear younger than you'd expect? Are they avoiding eye contact, or is the presence or behaviour of another individual making them appear frightened? Are they resistant to being paid directly?
- Is there a manager who takes the money and is overbearing or abusive?
- Are there living quarters upstairs or attached to the nail salon? Are employees brought to work at the same time?
What do they sound like?
- Do they seem hesitant to talk? Do they speak to others in the salon? Can they speak English? Being unable to speak English can increase people's vulnerability.
How do you feel?
- It's difficult to quantify, but trust your gut instinct. Do prices seem 'too good to be true'? Is the vibe you're getting making you feel uncomfortable? If you can't quite put your finger on it but you feel that some of the above indicators are present, you can report suspicions to the Modern Slavery Helpline - 08000 121 700 or.
Souce: Unseen
- If you think you or someone you have come across might be a victim of modern slavery call The Salvation Army’s confidential 24/7 referral helpline on 0300 303 8151