Charging Vietnamese families to repatriate their dead, trafficked, family members

The Vietnam government told the British government they would be paying the money, then actually only paid part of it and told the families that the rest was a loan.
The government in Vietnam could easily have paid the full amount to the families( but have chosen not to as a lesson to anyone who help family members to be smuggled abroad.)
That last comment in brackets is my own view btw.

It goes without saying that everyone is aware of what a tragedy it was but the fact remains that the families were complicit in sending their relatives here illegally.

Urmstongran? I honestly don’t know what I am but probably an agnostic.

I believe they are the ones who say there is no way of knowing if or not there is a God of any persuasion? Surely that’s true?

Sorry, going off topic!

I’m a humanist.
?

I hope those of you showing a lack of concern / empthay etc don't call yourselves Christians.

The parents were not so poor that they couldn’t afford smartphones. I remember them saying that was how they kept in touch with their offspring.

Anyone with a smartphone of course would have access to news around the world, and anyway they knew their youngsters were coming here with people smugglers.

They were fully aware that it was all illegal.

How are the relatives back home to know what really goes on on the other side of world?

I bet there are many in the UK who know little of the exploitation that can go on in nail bars, car washes, cannabis farms, etc.

Remember all those years ago the cockle pickers in Morecambe Bay? I had no idea such an activity existed!

Just as until recently I'd not heard of trafficked labour used in cannabis farms. How are Vietnamese villagers to know?

These people are poor village folk but there are huge opportunities now in Vietnam as its economy improves.

What amazes me is the fact that when they reach the UK these young people are often slaves, how come this does not reach their relatives back home ? Do they really believe they are welcomed with open arms and given lucrative jobs ?

According to the news one father sold his land to pay for his daughter's passage to a 'better life' so now they have nothing, not even anywhere to grow crops.

Nevertheless they DID come up with the money by some means or other so I repeat- it would have been far better spent paying for the youngsters’ education

As M0nica says:

They begged, borrowed and stole from friends and family, money lenders and some by selling their bodies. All the ways desperate people do when life is utterly hopeless but they see one, just one, small chink of light.

I doubt their parents had the money sitting in an ISA and pondered over how best to spend it.

I doubt if these impoverished parents managed to come up with such huge sums of money - from what I've read a community crowd-funds, or the money is owed and paid back when the young person is working.

I expect many of the families will be hounded by the traffickers/money lenders for repayment.

You say they are terribly poor yet the parents managed to come up with thousands to pay illegal traffickers.

Surely that money would have been better spent paying for their children to gain qualifications in Vietnam ?

The youngsters then would have something to offer Western countries and they could apply to work abroad in the normal way.

Yes of course it was tragic how they died but they shouldn’t have been encouraged by their parents to undertake such a foolish and illegal journey.

JE why amazingly, with the blessing of their families? Of course they had the blessing of their families, these are very poor people who can see no future for their children or themselves in the countries they live in.

They see other families who have got a family member to the UK, legally or illegally, prospering from the money these immigrants send back, children educated, the money to build a brick house with basic amenities like electricity.

Of course if someone can offer a child in their family some chance of hope and redemption from poverty, they will grab it, sell themselves into slavery, do anything to help a child get a better future thna they have.

How truly lacking in humanity some people are.

But we don't secure our borders. We just spot check the odd lorry and staff numbers at ports have been reduced. Our security is a joke!

Some have said that morally we should pay but it’s important not to lose sight of the fact that these people were trying to enter our country illegally, and, amazingly, with the blessing of their families .

We need to send out a strong message to the rest of the world who think that we are a soft touch. Unfortunately though they are right.

The sooner we secure our borders to prevent something like this happening again the better.

These desperate families just want the bodies of their loved ones returned:

www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2019/11/27/vietnamese-families-mourn-39-truck-migrants-funds-raised-help/

Scram News wasn't where I found it. I found a link to a BBC page (no idea which one) via a link on Twitter.

Yes, the Vietnamese govt IS charging them. Because the British govt charged THEM. Two wrongs. The victims, yet again, are the poor (of another country this time).

Well, we DO have a hostile environment to immigrants. Only got to look on THIS thread to see that. The poor sods died in horrific circumstances and people on here are still saying, in effect, that it was their own faults. More or less mocking utter desperation.

That's the only reference I could find as well.
Never heard of scram news before, it sounds like a load of fake news.

The only thing I have found is a report on scramnews, which itself is an anti-Tory ‘vessel’.
In fact, it’s the Vietnamese government that is charging the families.
Scramnews also says ( outrageously) that these poor people perished as a result of the UK’s hostile environment to immigrants, and that there was no other way to get in here.

ACTUALLY, lemongrove, I checked the BBC article the original info came from before I posted. I SHOULD have added the link then, because now I can't find it (and I have looked).

So. If it's wrong, the article I read got it wrong. I'll have another browse, see if I can find the link. It was a link from a link, so...

Gagajo you have got your facts wrong (the OP) as so often happens on GN now, shoot first and ask questions later.

@Gagajo I can't find anything online about them charging... Have you got a link to it, please? It's probably a joke.