Hà Tĩnh Province in northern central Vietnam, economically one of the poorest parts of Vietnam, has been heavily featured in the news of late, after the bodies of 39 people – many thought to be from the province – were found in the refrigerated trailer of a lorry in Waterglade Industrial Park, about 25 miles east of central London. Following the tragedy much attention has focused on the criminal gangs and risks involved in people trafficking, and on poverty in parts of central Vietnam.
Hà Tĩnh Province, north-central Vietnam
Much less attention has been paid to the role of environmental disasters as a possible reason why the economically-marginalised might risk their own lives and the future of family members who they leave behind ~ the latter through borrowing the relatively large amounts of money (several times an annual income in rural central Vietnam) demanded by people-traffickers, with stay-behind-relatives left to pay-off any outstanding migrant loans.
Reuters “Postcards from a poisoned coast” report released towards the end of last week (29 October) highlights the role that pollution and other drivers of environmental change might have played in the disaster that befell the 39 migrants. While in no way excusing people trafficking and the criminals that profit massively from it, the report highlights that many rural livelihoods in Hà Tĩnh and surrounding provinces have been made all the more precarious of late by frequent environmental disasters. An increasingly precarious livelihood is a potential trigger in deciding to risk being trafficked for the promise of a better life far away. The Formosa Steel plant, owned by Taiwan’s Formosa Plastics, in Hà Tĩnh Province was in 2016 the source of one of Vietnam’s worst environmental disasters. The disaster involved the discharge of toxic waste directly into adjacent areas of sea via “a submerged pipe belonging to the Formosa corporation, 1.5km in length, buried under the seabed“. Hundreds of tons of fish died as a result, and this loss and resultant bans on the sale of fish because of concerns over food safety disrupted fishing and related livelihoods in at least four provinces in central Vietnam, including Hà Tĩnh Province. Tourism was also severely impacted. The increased poverty that resulted affected more than 200,000 people. Locals took to the streets to demand action and compensation, with protests resulting in a government crackdown and the arrest of prominent protestors and journalists.
Eventually Formosa offered compensation, but later the same year (2016) was caught dumping around 260 tons of untreated dry waste at different spots in Hà Tĩnh Province. Cyanide was detected in some of the analysed samples of waste.
As pollution-related disasters – including those linked to climate change (itself in part a consequence of pollution) – become more frequent occurrences we can expect refugees from such catastrophes to be all the more numerous. People trafficking is likely to become yet more lucrative as demand for a better life somewhere else increases.
As climate change worsens, we can definitely expect more ecological disaster refugees, now what remains to be seen is how countries all over the world will deal with this. Band together to help one another and also tackle further worsening or start closing themselves off and make it an every man for himself situation?