Unless they apply successfully for asylum, those who have been smuggled into the country are destined to face a lifetime of low pay, dangerous working conditions and threats of violence. The introduction of tough sanctions against employers who break the law by employing undocumented migrants has allowed employers to enforce even more exploitative working conditions on the basis that they are taking greater risks. There is no way that ‘illegal’ migrant workers can climb out of the underground economy and become visible. Some people believe that those who have paid to be smuggled into the country have made a choice and therefore are not really entrapped. However, a lack of choices which drove them to leave their home country continues to entrap them once they are here, whether or not they were political refugees.

The British immigration system is predicated on notions of deserving and undeserving, choice and coercion: people who are trafficked are seen to be more deserving than those who have been smuggled in, because the first is seen as forced and the second is seen as voluntary. However in practice both can end up in slavery.

Bobby Chan, a Chinese worker in a law centre compares the lives of Chinese immigrants to that of a sewer rat: in the winter they never see the sunlight. They come out, go on the underground, go to work, go home and straight to bed. Four to six people might share a 6ftx8ft room. It is by living extremely cheaply that people are able to send money home and repay the huge investment made by the extended family in sending them here. While that debt remains unpaid, immigrant workers feel trapped in their situations.