UK anti-immigrant riots ramp up risks for undocumented Vietnamese seeking better pay

Riots by far-right mobs whipped up by misinformation and festering anger at immigration are sweeping across the United Kingdom, bringing fresh jeopardy to the Vietnamese and other Asian migrants trying to reach the country in their thousands each year.

Between 2018 and 2023, more than 3,500 Vietnamese people arrived undocumented on “small boats” across the channel separating France from southern England, according to UK Home Office data, putting Vietnam in the top 10 countries of illegal arrivals by sea.

Afghans, Iranians, Turks and Iraqis lead the number of boat arrivals.

All of their journeys are laced with risk. From long treacherous travel through Europe, dangerous boat crossings in dinghies from France – or hidden in lorries – to sham marriages to British citizens and exploitation on arrival in low-paid, or unpaid, work in nail bars and farms.

Once there, hostility is on the rise, including the threat of deportation by immigration authorities in a country where “small boats” have become shorthand by right-wing politicians and media for a nation being “overrun” by migrants through open borders.

Vietnamese agents moving people from poor parts of the Southeast Asian country to the UK have told This Week in Asia that it is no longer worth it, or are warning their customers of the extreme risks ahead if they are determined to make the journey.