3 days ago
Widow of Vietnamese migrant lorry tragedy victim smuggled to UK
Ribbons of purple smoke plume through the halls of Nguyen Nhung's home in Do Thanh village, central Vietnam, as she prays over burning incense sticks in remembrance of her son and daughter-in-law.
Le Van Ha, a 30-year-old graduate and Nhung's eldest child, was one of the 39 Vietnamese migrants who died in the back of a refrigerated lorry while being smuggled from Belgium to Essex in 2019.
His wife, Tran Thi Hoa, spent the past five years attempting to pay off a mountain of debt inherited to cover his people-smuggling fee — until this January, when Nhung said she chose to double it, and follow a similarly deadly route to the UK.
'Now it is like she has died too,' explained Nhung, as she bows over the marble altar in her hallway, whipping the incense to extinguish its smouldering ends.
'She has abandoned their children and left them with me. Now [her sons] are orphans. How do I tell my grandson his mother will never come back?'
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Hoa appears to be among a new wave of Vietnamese migrants choosing to move to the UK in large numbers via the small boat route from northern France. More than 3,600 Vietnamese were recorded crossing the Channel last year, making them the biggest nationality to make the dangerous journey in the first half of 2024.
She told Nhung she was moving to the UK 'to pay off [her husband's] loans' but allegedly borrowed more money to pay smugglers to move across European borders before finally crossing the Channel. The exact amount she borrowed is not known.
'She took savings for the children and left,' Nhung claimed.
Hoa is said to have gone ahead with the journey despite resistance from her relatives and wider backlash from the families of 21 of the 39 victims of the Essex lorry tragedy, who also come from the same central province of Nghe An.
The family initially raised 700 million Vietnamese dong, or £20,000, to send Ha to the UK in 2019, believing that his journey would lift the household above the poverty line. They admitted to taking out bank loans, borrowing from relatives and mortgaging two plots of land to secure his place on the fatal lorry journey.
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'We were told it was a VIP route, we did not think he would die' explained Nhung. 'We now warn young people not to go on this journey and risk their life. But many still try. I asked [Hoa] to stay here but she left … and she now does not talk to me.'
She claims the family still owe more than £19,000 to their lenders almost six years after Ha's death.
A total of 11 people have been convicted in the UK over the Essex lorry tragedy, in which victims paid large sums to be smuggled into Europe — only to suffocate inside an airtight container while being ferried from Belgium to Grays, Essex, in October 2019.
Ronan Hughes, who was a haulage manager, was jailed for 20 years at the Old Bailey in February 2021, after pleading guilty to his part in the 39 deaths. He was ordered to pay families £182,078.90 by a judge in January, as part of a compensation package. Nhung says her family have 'not received any money or justice' for Ha's death.
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Hoa did not deny claims put to her by The Times that she had paid to be smuggled to the UK, but would not confirm if she was working in the UK's booming black market, where hundreds of undocumented Vietnamese migrants work day and night on cannabis cultivation farms or in cash-in-hand jobs at nail salons.
Friends of the couple in Do Thanh claimed Hoa had talked about potentially working in a brothel to pay back the debt. Hoa did not respond to a request for comment on this.
A UK job — even one below minimum wage — can pay ten times as much as a standard role in central Vietnam. Remittances sent back by relatives who had been smuggled abroad have revolutionised the village of Do Thanh, which was once a rural rice-farming commune but is now made up of rows of mansions and luxury villas and is locally known as Billionaire's Village.
It is estimated that there are between 20,000 and 70,000 undocumented Vietnamese living in the UK.
During The Times's visit to Ha's childhood home, Hoa called their 11-year-old son from a location in London. She told him she would send over some money. Nhung confirmed she occasionally wires small sums to help with buying groceries.
'The money does not go to helping us pay their debt, it is for her son to eat,' Nhung says. 'She has only made life more difficult for us.'
'We're left with heartbreak,' she adds. 'We have no way to pay back this money. The grandchildren will have to help when they finish school.'
