This article focuses on the continued existence of organized crime within the Chinese community in the United Kingdom, with particular reference to ‘snakeheads’ (migrant smugglers) and the smuggling of irregular migrants.
The research was conducted using semi-structured interviews with 60 individuals in China, including senior members of the Chinese Ministry of Security, police liaison officers attached to a number of foreign embassies and representatives of NGOs with active interest in the movement of Chinese nationals, both within China and the South-East Asian region and beyond. Approximately half of the interviews were conducted in China and the remainder were conducted in the United Kingdom. Semi-structured interviews were also conducted with community representatives within the UK-based Chinese community. The study also included a questionnaire-based study of 25 London-based members of the Chinese community living irregularly in the United Kingdom. This sample included both those who had or were working in legal occupations and also those who had worked as sex workers, committed fraud or grown cannabis. The interviews were supplemented by a review of the Chinese press concentrating on the five free Chinese weekly newspapers available throughout Chinatown in London, including the Chinese Business Gazette, UK-Chinese Times, London Global Times, Epoch Times and the Sun Post. The primary purpose of the interviews and the review of the press was to gather information on the processes attached to irregular immigration into the United Kingdom, to identify patterns of employment or means of subsistence of those travelling and gain understanding of the involvement of Chinese irregular migrants in organized crime.
The article discusses Chinese migrant smugglers and contends that neither the Chinese smugglers nor the people that they smuggle to the United Kingdom think of migrant smugglers as criminals. In most events of Chinese migrant smuggling to the United Kingdom, the smuggler was a friend or family member. Smugglers also did not appear to exploit the smuggled migrants, and migrants were not expected to pay smugglers for anything except the stipulated fee for transporting them from China to the United Kingdom. All smuggled migrants interviewed for the study had used the services of brokers or intermediaries to facilitate their travel. The author contends that these migration brokers should not be underestimated—their success in smuggling people to the United Kingdom is due to their tenacity and their ability to adapt. The research revealed instances of brokers submitting multiple applications and appeals from the same applicants, the occasional use of call centres to facilitate multiple fraud, the merging of identity photos electronically and constant access to the nuances of multiple migration systems.
The article also explores the fees and payment for migrant smuggling services; in Fujian Province, there are numerous ways to obtain the necessary financial support to pay brokers’ fees, including structured products designed for would-be migrants by local banks, loan services advertised through SMS messages or from loans by agents, friends or family. However, the high costs mean that generally only one person from each Chinese family is able to enter the United Kingdom at a time.
The article concludes that migrant smuggling will not decline in the near future because there is an embedded and profitable industry in the United Kingdom devoted to providing services for irregular migrants who, in turn, generate further profits for their employers in the legal or illegal economy.
Through the interviews conducted with smuggled Chinese migrants residing in the United Kingdom, the article provides new information about the modus operandi of migrant smuggling from China to the United Kingdom, fees and payments for smuggling services, and new knowledge regarding the profiles and activities of Chinese migrant smugglers.
