成人快手

A NEW LIFE?

'Lee' speaks through a translator to Inside Out

It's a hard life for the illegal immigrants who have come to the UK to try and earn enough money to support their families back home in China, but it's even harder when they face adversity every step of the way. Inside Out investigates the story behind the Chinese migrants in Norfolk.

The person in our story is taking a huge risk by talking to us - he could lose everything if he was found out.

In an exclusive interview with Inside Out, 'Lee', as we'll call him, talks with the help of a translator about the struggles faced by illegal migrants like himself, who came to the UK to make a better life for their families back home in China.

Lee's story

Having left behind his home town in the Fujian province in the south of China, Lee was smuggled into the UK by a group of 'snakeheads.'

These people operate a criminal network, demanding payment from illegal migrants in return for organising their journeys out of China and overseas.

They use false identification and fake passports to smuggle the migrants past British officials, where they then have to live in terrible conditions.

Lee paid a snakehead around 拢13,000 for the promise of a flight to the UK and a job waiting for him, but the reality was very different.

"I was told if I pay them money the journey would be comfortable because it would be by aeroplane," he says.

But there was no aeroplane and the journey took months.

People were crammed into the boots of taxis, and Lee was among 90 immigrants hidden in the back of a beer lorry.

He was almost suffocated as he was buried beneath straw on a horse and cart.

"I feel the 'snakehead' cheated me, I feel so angry. If you have good health then fine, but if you are weak sometimes you just lose your life," he says despairingly.

Journey to a new life

It's a familiar story - the news headlines are well documented.

58 illegal Chinese immigrants were found dead in a lorry in Dover, and 23 Chinese 'cocklers' drowned while working illegally at Morecambe Bay.

These are the risks that people like Lee have to take if they want to make themselves a better life. But is it worth it?

Lee recalled, "When I heard people died in Dover I felt very scared and sad.

"The only thing I want to do is to go home, to escape."

Risky business

Despite the risks, many Chinese migrants feel they have no choice but to leave behind their families and flee to the UK in search of work.

In fact, where Lee comes from, a month's work would only earn him around 200 Chinese Yen - that's around 拢13.

"There are not many jobs in my home town," says Lee, "the money I have to support my children and look after my parents is impossible - the only thing I can do is go abroad to earn more money."

A hard slog

Minority Ethnic Liaison Officer Tony Lombardi

The sad fact of the matter is that illegal migrants like Lee can earn more money doing a menial job in the UK than they could back home.

Tony Lombardi, Minority Ethnic Liaison Officer for Norfolk Constabulary, told us, "They're doing any dirty picking, packing or processing job or any other work that we can't find people to do here.

"They are doing it for far less money than people in this country would do it for - they work a whole month to send home money that you or I would spend on a trip to the chip shop, but they would risk their lives for less than that," he explained.

And risking their lives is no joke - people like Lee are often found living in appalling conditions, working regular 12 hour days and sleeping at night in a small, cramped space with as many as 10other people.

In fact, a recent study has also found that a large number of Chinese migrants have suffered or are still suffering abuse at the hands of the community where they live.

The author of the report, the Rev Carrie Pemberton, says, "These Chinese migrants are vulnerable to both the activity of their 'snakeheads', the people they owe money to, their own community, and to racist attacks here in the UK."

That's if they even make it to the UK at all.

Rev Pemberton wrote a report on illegal migrants

Dr Pemberton continued, "The journeys that they undertake can be highly dangerous. At one level laws have been broken as they have come into the country.

"At another level they are quite heroic, the way that they have undertaken these journeys to come and be part of our economy."

The fight for human rights

Unlike the illegal migrants we have our rights protected by law, but people like Lee cannot enjoy the same privilege.

For Lee, day-to-day life means working 12 hours a day, seven days a week, sometimes sleeping with up to 10 other people in a room.

Being discovered by immigration authorities is a constant worry.

Lee rarely goes out, preferring to live in isolation while saving every penny he earns from his jobs in the food industry to send home.

So far he has sent home thousands of pounds. The cost is that he has missed seeing his son growing up.

"The more I think about it, the more I feel sad about my life," he says.

"When I left home my son was young, he couldn't understand. He's 15 now and can understand what I have done for him.

"The fear and hardship have been worth it because I have been able to support my son's education. He's doing very well at school," Lee explains.

Isolation

The vast majority of Chinese people living in Britain are here legally, unlike Lee who has been living a secret life for the past three and a half years.

Unfortunately, even though there are some Chinese migrants who claim asylum, for the most part the police are in the unusual position of trying to protect people who have no official identity.

Tony Lombardi, of Norfolk Constabulary, says, "They are absolutely petrified at the concept of a police officer taking an interest in them, because at home a police officer coming around means only one thing - that you are going to be arrested and taken away and goodness knows what's going to happen to you.

"The concept of a police officer who wants to help them access services here or at least to fit legally into the community is what they are not familiar with.

"Bridges are being built, but not at a rate that is going to lead to a happy community in the near future.

"At the moment the Chinese immigrants are living in isolation and they are not entering into the community in any way, shape or form."

Kwai Li talks to Inside Out presenter Dawn

Kwai Li, of the West Norfolk and District Chinese Association, agrees.

He tells us, "It is very difficult to get the migrants involved in our community because they seem to work night and day, they seem to hide away because of their illegality and status.

"We try to get them involved because where they come from is similar to us and we want them to share our experience.

"Hopefully they can slowly integrate into our community and society."

But it's rarely that simple, and with thousands of illegal immigrants currently living and working in this country, it's a constant problem.