A self-confessed smuggler narrated how he made more than 1,000 Vietnamese people enter the United Kingdom illegally and called this business “lucrative”, while speaking to BBC.

The smuggler, who called himself Thanh, spoke about the ways in which criminal enterprises took advantage of migrants who wanted to cross the channel.

He said that Vietnamese travel a lot for work and because of lax EU work visa regulations, they now have a clear route to bring people to the UK from the Asian country.

In his interview with the BBC, Thanh said that he had appealed for asylum in Britain after he entered the country by crossing the channel on a small boat and paying double the amount which is paid by other migrants.

He said that he informed the UK authorities that he had been trafficked to increase the chances of asylum.

“That’s the way it’s done. [People lie] in order to continue the asylum process safely,” he added.

Thanh said that when he was camping in a forest near Dunkirk, he first started to help people-smuggling gangs in exchange for £250 (approx. $324) for every successful trip. 

He became famous among the gang of smugglers but he was caught and put behind bars in Europe.

After he was released, Thanh travelled to the UK and made efforts to leave behind the smuggling of people.

However, he said his reputation has forced him to make a living by forging documents for the new arrivals in the United Kingdom.

“People in Europe contacted me asking for help. I’d already helped about 1,000 people to get to the UK successfully, so I was well known for that success,” Thanh said.

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“I had a lot of clients. Depending on which embassy it was, we would provide forged bank statements or other documents. First, we would submit these online. If certain embassies needed to check with banks, then we’d put real cash into a bank account. We had arrangements with staff at certain banks,” he added. 

“The clients couldn’t access the money themselves, but the bank staff would show the [falsified] details to embassy staff. We worked with lots of different types of Vietnamese banks,” stated the smuggler.

Thanh said that he has now decided to speak about his criminal activities to make Vietnamese people understand that the journey to Europe is not worth it.

“I just want people in Vietnam to understand that it’s not worth borrowing lots of money to travel here. It’s not so easy for illegal arrivals to find work or make money. And when they do make money it’s less than in the past,” he said. 

(With inputs from agencies)