ESA Scotland’s work with East and Southeast Asian migrant and refugee communities in Scotland

 

ESA Scotland was originally created out of necessity in response to the insufficient response of statutory services to the needs of East and Southeast Asian (ESA) migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers during the COVID-19 pandemic and the increase in ESA-directed hate crimes being reported in the United Kingdom. Having spent time engaging with the refugee and asylum-seeking community in Glasgow and Edinburgh, our service users shared stories that made it painfully clear how disempowered and disenfranchised the ESA migrant community is in Scotland. It is patently clear that local and national institutions are failing to provide culturally sensitive services, stemming from a lack of data and understanding of ESA migrants' experiences and their diverse cultural contexts. ESA Scotland aims to establish a constant line of communication and dialogue between all involved stakeholders, namely the affected Vietnamese migrant community, government bodies and statutory agencies, and the broader Scottish public.

ESA people are often overlooked in both national and local policy, despite being the fastest growing ethnic minority groups in the UK in recent years. The systemic racism that ESA people face in the UK is deeply embedded in even the most routine processes, such as the national census identifying the ESA community as either “Asian-Chinese” or “Asian-Other”, overlooking the diversity of the region and creating an incomplete and inaccurate representation of the struggles that the ESA community faces.

When the relatively privileged Scottish/British-born ESEA community lack this representation and engagement in major conversations (even in conversations that predominantly concern BAME communities), it inevitably trickles down towards the more vulnerable ESA migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers, who lack the social safety nets, language skills, and institutional trust that other ESA people may have. In our first year of operation alone, ESA Scotland has talked to almost 350 Vietnamese migrants, refugees, and asylum seekers in Scotland, many of whom have families and children in Scotland. This is just a small percentage of the true number of ESA migrants in our region. The Trafficking Awareness Raising Alliance (TARA) run by the Glasgow City Council has reported that in the last 12 months since July 2021, almost half of the trafficking victims that have been referred to them are of East and Southeast Asian origin (Chinese, Vietnamese, and Thai, respectively), yet their stories are often poorly understood in both statutory agencies and third-sector organisations or ignored altogether.

ESA Scotland has already held focus groups and one-on-one phone conversations with Vietnamese migrants across Scotland to establish an understanding and overview of the community’s perspectives. As most of our work is conducted with extremely vulnerable people, the most significant risk involves the precarity of Asylum seekers and Refugees. Engaging in democratic participation should not make our migrant, refugee, and asylum-seeking service users feel unsafe or at risk. Currently, our organisation ensures that staff members and volunteers undergo safeguarding and GDPR training to ensure the safety and, when necessary, anonymity of the vulnerable communities we work with. We intend to continue this practice and keep the safety of our migrant communities of utmost priority.  

Ultimately, ESA Scotland seeks to empower the most vulnerable people within Scotland’s ESEA communities to ensure their human rights are protected. The project would assist these often-overlooked groups to make a much-needed contribution to developing a more robust and equitable migrant and human rights framework in Scotland. By having the people that have gone through these issues feel confident in expressing themselves and speaking out on the issues they face, it will contribute to more culturally sensitive civil services, increased BAME solidarity in Scotland, and a more dignified and humane environment for refugee communities to live in. With ESA Scotland amplifying and supporting the stances of the Vietnamese refugee community, we can make sure they are key actors in this process. 

What is Human trafficking or Modern slavery?

“Human trafficking is the modern-day form of slavery. It is the illegal trade in human beings for reasons such as sexual exploitation, forced labour, domestic servitude, forced criminal activity, or removal of human organs. Children, women, and men are held against their will, bought, sold, and transported into slavery.”

Human trafficking can affect people brought from overseas and vulnerable people already living in the UK who are forced to work illegally. 

It does not matter if the victim “consented” to this exploitation. This treatment is still a violation of their freedom and human rights.

Different Kinds of Exploitation and their Signs 

  • Sexual – including commercial sexual exploitations, such as prostitution, pornography, lap dancing, and stripping 

  • Labour – includes factory work, agricultural work, care work, construction, and food industry 

  • Domestic servitude – includes housework, cooking, and childcare 

  • Criminal - includes cannabis cultivation, fraud (benefits/identity thefts), forced and sham marriages