The 39 people found dead in a
refrigerated trailer in Essex, UK are featured on media these days.
British police at first believed that they were Chinese nationals.
However, their actual nationalities were revised due to some recent
reports. Trusted sources like Reuters, BBC and SkyNews believed that
these victims are thought to have come from two impoverished provinces
in Vietnam. Relatives, in Nghe An and Ha Tinh provinces, Vietnam,
interviewed by media said that they were informed their sons and
daughters had been in that unfortunate lorry. One of the last messages
from a girl named Pham Tra My, said: “I am dying because I cannot
breathe”, was sent to her parents shows that she might be among the
dead.
There are many questions. Many people around the world wonder why these victims dare to risk their lives in such terrible ways to enter UK or other countries illegally.
I am a Vietnamese journalist that covers news about Vietnamese communities. Personally, I think that people will not stop fleeing/escaping from Vietnam. To develop some insight in to why people take these risks, some background information on what has happened in these impoverished areas is necessary.
In 1994 when I was six years old, my family left Nghe An province, where most victims are thought to be from, to have a better life. More than 25 years later, Nghe An is still among the poorest provinces of Vietnam.
In 2016, I returned to my homeland in Nghe An. At that time, thousands of people in central Vietnam were participating in protests against Formosa. Formosa is a Taiwanese steel company but believed to be owned by the Chinese government. Formosa caused the largest environmental disaster in Vietnamese history. In April 2016 it was found to discharge untreated chemical waste directly into the ocean. Official reports on state media estimated 70 tonnes of dead fish were washed ashore along the coastline of four provinces in Vietnam including Ha Tinh, Quang Binh, Thua Thien - Hue, Quang Tri.
The chemical spill that poisoned 125 miles of Vietnam’s coastline has damaged the livelihoods of fishermen in Nghe An as well. However, 500 millions dollars of compensation that Formosa promised to victims has not been paid to those who are in Nghe An. Slow response and denials of wrongdoing, rejections of lawsuits against Formosa sparked massive protests unseen in the home of the Vietnamese communist party for four decades. Protesters were beaten. Environmentalists, activists and reporters were arrested and jailed with the longest sentence up to 20 years in prison and 5 years probation like Mr Le Dinh Luong. People despaired/lost hope in the government.
The government silenced all the anger among the affected people. It failed to assist these people to recover. There are no policies encouraging regional economic growth.
Joblessness and pressure of earning a living in this destroyed region have worsened and it continues to decline. Trafficking organizations appear like “the mushroom after rain”. They sometimes have been seen as “a ray of hope” for the hopeless.
Many parents let their children drop/stop school. They could not afford their tuition when their children could be “bread-winners”. Uneducated and desperate youth have become the target of smugglers. With the promise of better life abroad, many young people voluntarily chose their dangerous journey to developed countries.
I think that we, on the behalf of parents, owe the victims an apology. The most dangerous thing we can pass on to the next generation is hopelessness. Our education system has failed to teach our children how to have a meaningful life and has not guided them in what to do to build their future here in our homeland. We have failed to invest in our children and so the young generation feel that they are not valued and respected. When even our leaders also try by any possible means to possess a green card in different developed countries, we know where our nation is going to be. What can young people do with an inheritance like that?
I am sorry.
Tran Minh Nhat
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