London Daily

Focus on the big picture.
Thursday, Oct 30, 2025

Home Office planned speedy removal of Vietnamese trafficking victims

Home Office planned speedy removal of Vietnamese trafficking victims

Documents seen by Guardian refer to fast-track system not intended to be used in trafficking cases
The Home Office detained more than 100 Vietnamese nationals who arrived on small boats in May but planned to speedily remove them from the UK despite them being potential victims of trafficking, the Guardian has learned.

In an exercise codenamed Operation Ammonite, the Home Office chartered two deportation flights to Vietnam, one in April of this year and one in July. The flights carried 27 and 21 deportees respectively. However the Home Office plan was to fill the second plane with many more Vietnamese nationals.

In recent months government officials and NGOs have observed a sharp increase in the number of Vietnamese nationals crossing the Channel on small boats. This is thought to be partly due to a reduction in the number of lorries on the roads and a fear among Vietnamese nationals of travelling in lorries after the tragedy that claimed 39 lives of Vietnamese migrants in 2019.

Internal documents seen by the Guardian marked “Home Office confidential” refer to Operation Ammonite. The documents are dated mid-May 2021. One refers to the “seventh batch of a further 20 individuals accepted for DAC (Detained Asylum Casework)”.

This is a fast-track system of immigration detention where people can be swiftly removed from the UK because their cases are deemed to have no merit and do not require detailed investigation. Lawyers have said the Home Office’s own guidance suggests the procedure should not be used for such cases.

Lawyers believe that more than 140 Vietnamese nationals were detained over three days from 11 to 14 May, a large number of any one nationality to be detained over such a short period.

People who are detained who have lived in the UK for several years, who speak English and who have strong community networks, are more able to raise the alarm and seek legal and other assistance if sent to a detention centre.

But this group of Vietnamese nationals, likely to owe large sums to the smugglers who brought them to the UK and unlikely to speak English, were more likely to slip under the radar.

However, once they did make contact with lawyers and NGOs they were identified en masse as potential victims of trafficking, were released from detention and not put on the deportation flights as the Home Office had planned.

Many of those identified as potential trafficking victims disappeared shortly after being freed. They are thought to have fallen back into the hands of traffickers and forced to work in cannabis farms or nail bars to pay off debts they owe for their passage to the UK.

Tom Nunn of Duncan Lewis solicitors, who dealt with some of the cases, expressed alarm at the mass detentions.

“The DAC process can only be used for cases [the] Home Office believes are doomed to fail based on their reasons for claiming asylum. The Home Office’s own internal guidance suggests that this process cannot be used for Vietnamese nationals who are in fear of moneylenders or traffickers. All of those we came into contact with were claiming asylum for these reasons.”

He added that the Home Office attempted to rush as many vulnerable trafficking victims as possible out of the UK.

“We suspect that not a single person who was detained as part of this strategy was removed on any of the charter flights.

“The main impact of this policy has been to ensure that many of these individuals are now back in the hands of their traffickers. The next contact they have with a lawyer is likely to be when they are arrested following raids on the cannabis houses run by the traffickers.”

A Home Office spokesperson said: “Human trafficking has absolutely no place in our society and we are committed to fortifying our immigration system against these heinous crimes, whilst ensuring victims are protected and offenders prosecuted. Our published policies clearly set out when we can detain individuals, including when any individual can be detained while awaiting consideration of their asylum claim.”
Newsletter

Related Articles

0:00
0:00
Close
UK and Vietnam Sign Landmark Migration Deal to Fast-Track Returns of Irregular Arrivals
UK Drug-Pricing Overhaul Essential for Life-Sciences Ambition, Says GSK Chief
Princesses Beatrice and Eugenie Temporarily Leave the UK Amid Their Parents’ Royal Fallout
UK Weighs Early End to Oil and Gas Windfall Tax as Reeves Seeks Investment Commitments
UK Retail Inflation Slows as Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since Spring
Next Raises Full-Year Profit Guidance After Strong Third-Quarter Performance
Reform UK’s Lee Anderson Admits to 'Gaming' Benefits System While Advocating Crackdown
United States and South Korea Conclude Major Trade Accord Worth $350 Billion
Hurricane Melissa Strikes Cuba After Devastating Jamaica With Record Winds
Vice President Vance to Headline Turning Point USA Campus Event at Ole Miss
U.S. Targets Maritime Narco-Routes While Border Pressure to Mexico Remains Limited
Bill Gates at 70: “I Have a Real Fear of Artificial Intelligence – and Also Regret”
Elon Musk Unveils Grokipedia: An AI-Driven Alternative to Wikipedia
Saudi Arabia Unveils Vision for First-Ever "Sky Stadium" Suspended Over Desert Floor
Amazon Announces 14 000 Corporate Job Cuts as AI Investment Accelerates
UK Shop Prices Fall for First Time Since March, Food Leads the Decline
London Stock Exchange Group ADR (LNSTY) Earns Zacks Rank #1 Upgrade on Rising Earnings Outlook
Soap legend Tony Adams, long-time star of Crossroads, dies at 84
Rachel Reeves Signals Tax Increases Ahead of November Budget Amid £20-50 Billion Fiscal Gap
NatWest Past Gains of 314% Spotlight Opportunity — But Some Key Risks Remain
UK Launches ‘Golden Age’ of Nuclear with £38 Billion Sizewell C Approval
UK Announces £1.08 Billion Budget for Offshore Wind Auction to Boost 2030 Capacity
UK Seeks Steel Alliance with EU and US to Counter China’s Over-Capacity
UK Struggles to Balance China as Both Strategic Threat and Valued Trading Partner
Argentina’s Markets Surge as Milei’s Party Secures Major Win
British Journalist Sami Hamdi Detained by U.S. Authorities After Visa Revocation Amid Israel-Gaza Commentary
King Charles Unveils UK’s First LGBT+ Armed Forces Memorial at National Memorial Arboretum
At ninety-two and re-elected: Paul Biya secures eighth term in Cameroon amid unrest
Racist Incidents Against UK Nurses Surge by 55%
UK Chancellor Rachel Reeves Cites Shared Concerns With Trump Administration as Foundation for Early US-UK Trade Deal
Essentra plc: A Closer Look at a UK ‘Penny Stock’ Opportunity Amid Market Weakness
U.S. and China Near Deal to Avert Rare-Earth Export Controls Ahead of Trump-Xi Summit
Justin time: Justin Herbert Shields Madison Beer with Impressive Reflex at Lakers Game
Russia’s President Putin Declares Burevestnik Nuclear Cruise Missile Ready for Deployment
Giuffre’s Memoir Alleges Maxwell Claimed Sexual Act with Clooney
House Republicans Move to Strip NYC Mayoral Front-Runner Zohran Mamdani of U.S. Citizenship
Record-High Spoiled Ballots Signal Voter Discontent in Ireland’s 2025 Presidential Election
Philippines’ Taal Volcano Erupts Overnight with 2.4 km Ash Plume
Albania’s Virtual AI 'Minister' Diella Set to 'Birth' Eighty-Three Digital Assistants for MPs
Tesla Unveils Vision for Optimus V3 as ‘Biggest Product of All Time’, Including Surgical Capabilities
Francis Ford Coppola Auctions Luxury Watches After Self-Financed Film Flop
Convicted Sex Offender Mistakenly Freed by UK Prison Service Arrested in London
United States and China Begin Constructive Trade Negotiations Ahead of Trump–Xi Summit
U.S. Treasury Sanctions Colombia’s President Gustavo Petro over Drug-Trafficking Allegations
Miss USA Crowns Nebraska’s Audrey Eckert Amid Leadership Overhaul
‘I Am Not Done’: Kamala Harris Signals Possible 2028 White House Run
NBA Faces Integrity Crisis After Mass Arrests in Gambling Scandal
Swift Heist at the Louvre Sees Eight French Crown Jewels Stolen in Under Seven Minutes
U.S. Halts Trade Talks with Canada After Ontario Ad Using Reagan Voice Triggers Diplomatic Fallout
Microsoft AI CEO: ‘We’re making an AI that you can trust your kids to use’ — but can Microsoft rebuild its own trust before fixing the industry’s?
×