The trafficking of women and children from Vietnam - CEOP

6. Victims trafficked to the UK
6.1 Labour contracts and travel visas
NOT PROTECTIVELY MARKED
Vietnamese workers who accept overseas labour contracts or work abroad greatly help to
strengthen the Vietnamese economy. However, a proportion of this income and
subsequent investment is derived from the proceeds of crime. The UK and Canada are two
countries where Vietnamese criminal networks are prominent in the illegal cultivation and
supply of cannabis. In the UK, the proceeds of these crimes are laundered through
Vietnamese businesses such as nail bars. Cash profits which reach into the millions are
invested back in Vietnam, with cash often physically taken over to Vietnam in luggage.
Another common ploy is to use illegal money in the UK to pay school and university fees,
while the sponsor lodges an equivalent amount in Vietnamese Dong with the trafficker and
his family. 42
Network members acting as recruitment agents liaise with the trafficking networks to
provide ‘work’ for victims and provide a veneer of legitimacy. But the employment offered
will often be working as a gardener in a cannabis growing operation, in the case of boys; or,
rather more rarely, girls are offered work in nail bars, or brothels.
The British Embassy and Pacific Links Foundation have raised concerns over government
policy in relation to overseas’ labour contracts. Tighter controls may have a direct impact on
TIP, but they might also potentially impact on financial streams (including legal ones)
generated from overseas work and invested in Vietnam.
Although 80,000 legal work visas are issued every year, this does not meet the demand from
Vietnamese people for overseas labour contracts. This is therefore another push factor for
illegal migration. Most of the 58 children identified as being trafficked to the UK in the 2010
CEOP STA entered clandestinely (although some may have been issued a visa for Russia).
The 2010 CEOP STA highlighted that the first leg of the trafficking route for many children
trafficked into the UK was to fly from Vietnam into Russia. According to information
supplied by the Russian Embassy, Russia issues approximately 50,000 visas to Vietnamese
citizens every year. There are no Russian immigration staff based in Vietnam, and Foreign
Service officers issue visas, for the most part without referral and with few, if any, checks.
42 British Embassy Visa Risk Analysis
Page 25 of 31