Lured by the promise of a better life, Vietnamese teenagers are borrowing thousands to go to Europe and watch their favorite soccer teams in the hope of higher salaries.
But the reality is much darker than this. Trapped by huge debts and low wages, many are increasingly arriving in Britain where they face sex work, slavery and cannabis cultivation.
Some Vietnamese migrants have accumulated eye-popping debts of up to £100,000 by the time they reach British shores, experts claim.
Desperate to secure well-paid jobs to pay off ruthless lenders, many youths are often thrown into dark alleys where they are exploited by criminal syndicates.
Irregular work in nail salons, restaurants, and construction sites is often the first step onto the slippery slope of black market labor.
Suspicious migration gangs find illegal work for their victims – while making huge profits as well.
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In the first half of 2024, more Vietnamese nationals attempted the small boat crossing to the UK than any other nationality.
And about 1,500 Vietnamese migrants made the same journey last year, according to Migration Observatory data seen by The Sun.
A few weeks ago, police in Europe busted a Vietnamese smuggling network It raised more than £2.5 million – arresting eight suspects in France, Germany and Hungary.
The criminal organization extended to several European countries and offered Britain as a final destination.
Many indebted migrants risk their lives to come to Britain – where, they are told, the most money is to be made – hidden in the back of lorries or across the Channel in small boats.
Two Vietnamese boat smugglers were also jailed last week after they made £750,000 by ferrying their countrymen to Britain and advertising their services online.
Vietnam International Safe Labor co-founder Mimi Vu revealed one victim’s journey to Britain – saying the destination represents the “worst-case scenario” for any abused migrant.
He told The Sun he first came to Hungary where he was promised high wages and an easy life – but soon discovered he would only earn £5 an hour.
Then they learned that 90 percent of their monthly salary would be taken to repay their loan – leaving them with almost nothing.
Young went to Germany in hopes of better pay – where he worked on a dangerous construction project, slept in a roofless space, and ate one meal a day.
Every time he complained, his family was also threatened.
Wu said: “He was so desperate, he said, ‘I can’t stand it anymore.’
The victim is then brought to the UK – often seen as a last resort for many workers who need higher wages to pay off eye-watering debts.
“To be brought up in Britain means you are at the end of a very long and very humiliating experience,” he said.
By this time he had accumulated debts of approximately £100,000.
He was shuttled back and forth between cannabis grow houses and construction sites across the country — even arrested and then released several times, Wu said.
She claimed that gangs repeatedly kidnapped her and forced her back into slavery.
Wu said: “They would put him back in the cannabis grow houses, and in those places, he would only be given a pack of instant noodles a day.
“He was forced to work with all these poisonous gases, he had no shower, no shelter, no anything – and if he complained, he was beaten.”
Wu said the victim tried to escape twice but was caught and beaten both times.
She said her horrific experience was just one of thousands of similar cases – which could be even more humiliating for women and girls who always face the threat of sexual exploitation.
Wu added, “To be honest, I have not met a single female victim in Britain who has not been sexually exploited or forced into some form of sexual activity.”
The expert also said that many people come to Europe with simple dreams like watching their favorite football teams or working abroad for a short time, before getting trapped in the cruel world of trafficking.
In 2019, 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in the back of a lorry in Essex. Seven people in Britain were jailed and sentenced to a total of more than 92 years.
Michael Brosowski, founder of the Vietnamese anti-trafficking agency Blue Dragon Children’s Foundation, highlighted how the UK route could be deadly.
He told us: “Vietnamese people smuggled or trafficked to Britain left their homes with hopes of a brighter future and, along the way, they were taken advantage of and in some cases lost their lives.”
Brosowski said: “When people have no choice but to migrate irregularly because of the lack of safe, legal pathways, they become extremely vulnerable.
“They have to depend on others for their travels, they have to pay huge amounts of money, they have to go into debt.
“This puts them in a vulnerable situation that human traffickers exploit to their advantage.”
Brosowski revealed that approximately 16 million people out of Vietnam’s 100 million population are “vulnerable to human trafficking”.
Living in remote, deprived areas or experiencing economic hardship can increase the risk of trafficking, she said.
Despite a drop in the number of Vietnamese people making small boat crossings between 2024 and 2025, Vu warned that UK authorities were not doing enough.
The UK has paid £7 million to “destroy” Vietnamese smuggling gangs – part of a deal which Vu said was not fully effective.
Dozens of Vietnamese migrants are understood to be in the Dunkirk “jungle” in France – where smugglers reportedly provide “fast-track” services to Britain and people waiting to cross the Channel live in camps in the jungle.
European police find it difficult to crack down on trafficking gangs because they cooperate in “decentralized networks” spanning multiple countries.
Well-connected syndicates move migrants from city to city and from country to country – while also organizing illegal work or unpaid labour.
Wu said cannabis farms in the UK were not being targeted adequately – highlighting that new grow houses often spring up as large farms close.
Around 70,000 undocumented Vietnamese are believed to be living in Britain.
And according to the UK Home Office, the second most common foreign nationality for potential modern slavery victims in 2024 was Vietnamese.
The report said this network marks the fastest growing illegal route in the UK.
Explaining how so many victims could be trafficked, Wu said that debt was “the main means of control” in every story.
It is used as a tool to exploit, abuse and put the Vietnamese people in vulnerable situations, he said.
Vu highlighted the importance of recognizing the dangerous path that many Vietnamese are forced to take to get here – rather than the one they choose to take.
“The Essex 39s, the only reason they were seen as victims was because they died,” she said.
“If they had come to Britain without dying, they would not have been seen as victims.”
The Sun contacted the Home Office for comment.
What is modern slavery and how does the Salvation Army help?
Modern slavery occurs when someone loses their freedom and is controlled and exploited by others for profit – through forced labour, crime or sexual exploitation.
Shocking forced labor cases in recent years have revealed how British gangs have used smuggled immigrants to supply top supermarkets and kept them in filthy garden sheds.
In 2017, traveler clan the Rooneys were caged after enslaving 18 homeless people who were beaten with shovels and made to work at their tarmacking firm for 26 years.
In one case exposed in 2019, homeless addicts were forced to work up to 100 hours a week in businesses including a McDonald’s drive-thru in Cambridgeshire.
Meanwhile, the gang leaders themselves were earning hundreds of thousands of pounds a year from slave labour, splashing the cash on Versace gear and shamelessly sharing photos of £20 notes hanging from their Christmas trees.
Earlier this year, we also revealed how despicable sex traffickers are delivering child slaves to UK predators’ homes ‘like takeaways’.
Our shocking investigation revealed how, working behind the walls of seemingly normal homes, girls as young as 12 have been forced to have sex with up to 20 men a day.
However, a recent report from The Salvation Army reveals that slavery gangs are targeting Britons as well as foreign nationals.
The charity estimates that 70,000 Britons may currently be living in exploitation across the UK.
For 14 years, the Government has funded The Salvation Army to provide specialist support for adult survivors in England and Wales under the Modern Slavery Victim Care Contract.
The charity provides access to safe housing, medical, psychological, financial and legal support and helps rebuild lives.
