Lured by jobs in Europe, Vietnamese migrants are smuggled illegally often through China or Russia, Carsten Moritz, head of the human trafficking unit of
the Federal Criminal Police Office (BKA), told public broadcaster RBB.

Arrivals from Vietnam frequently work under “exploitative conditions” to
pay off smuggling debts, which cost around €10,000 to €20,000 per person.

A “huge network” that is “active all over Europe” is behind trafficking from Vietnam, according to the BKA, generating “enormous sums” for criminals.

A Europe-wide operation will be launched this year to tackle the problem initiated by the BKA and bringing in police from countries including Poland, Britain, the Netherlands, Austria, Switzerland, the Czech Republic and Belgium as well as EU law enforcement agency Europol.

Police have previously found migrants — including minors — illegally working in massage parlours, nail salons and restaurants, as well as the textile and cleaning industry.

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The eastern Berlin district of Lichtenberg, home to the Dong Xuan Center, one of Germany's largest Asian markets, is of central importance, Moritz said.

In March last year, German police carried out a series of raids against
suspected Vietnamese traffickers and arrested six in relation to charges of smuggling 155 Vietnamese people to Germany.

People who choose to make the perilous journey to Europe often endure appalling conditions.

In 2019, 39 Vietnamese migrants were found dead in a refrigerated truck in Britain shortly after it had crossed the Channel from mainland Europe.

The ringleader Gheorghe Nica was arrested in Frankfurt in January 2020 on a
European Arrest Warrant and later convicted in London of 39 counts of
manslaughter.

Another suspected leader in the smuggling, a 29-year-old nicknamed “the
Bald Duke”, was arrested in Germany in May, sources told AFP at the time.

There are around 188,000 people of Vietnamese descent in Germany, according
to official statistics.

Many Vietnamese came as so-called guest workers to communist East Germany, staying after the fall of the Berlin Wall.

Others are descended from the “boat people” who arrived in West Germany after fleeing their homeland at the end of the Vietnam War.

READ ALSO: Police bust Vietnamese human-trafficking ring