A number of Vietnamese nail salons and members of the Vietnamese community have come forward in support of three salon owners who they believe were ‘unjustly sentenced’ for committing modern slavery, last year.

The campaign ‘No such thing as modern slavery in Vietnamese nail industry’ came ahead of their appellate hearing in the Royal Courts of Justice due to take place on Wednesday, 23 January.

Huong Nguyen, known as Jenny, and Viet Hoang Nguyen, known as Ken, and Giang Huong Tran, known as Susan (Ken’s wife), were found guilty of exploiting two girls aged 17 and 18 under the Modern Slavery Act 2015 and were sentenced at Stafford crown court on 2 January 2018.

Jenny, 48, from Bath, was sentenced to five years’ imprisonment, while Ken, 29, from Burton-upon-Trent, was jailed for four years.The third defendant, Susan, was given a two-year suspended sentence.

The campaigners are calling upon nail bars across the country to shut down on the day of the hearing and join their protest outside the Court of Appeal in London.

 

One of the supporters, Jay La said that even though the owners were guilty of hiring illegal workers, they did not commit the crime of exploiting them and hence, the sentencing was unjust.

He said: “They (the girls) completely ruined their businesses and put them on huge financial debts to clear their names.”

Salon owners also said that this case has caused a severe impact on their businesses with one of them claiming to have been exposed to racial attacks.

Vina Van, from Birmingham said: “Conditions for nail bars in London are not bad but outside London it’s terrible. The community looks us with hate and they are becoming racist but the truth is that it’s all lies, the news about not paying, complete lie.”

Hung Manh Do, who came illegally to the UK in 2001 from Vietnam said he had never had a  bad experience working at nail salons. The 37-year-old said: “They in fact help illegal people who are have trouble finding jobs without papers. The girls wanted asylum and lied about being exploited.”

A GoFundMe page was also set up in support of the two families on Tuesday evening, which has raised more than £8,000 of the £10,000 target within just two days. Hu Anh Tuan who started the fundraiser said the money collected will be put towards the lawyer’s fee for the two families. In addition to showing solidarity towards the appeal, another reason for starting the fundraiser was to protect the Vietnamese community from bad reputation, he said.

The campaigners are expecting a a crowd of around four hundred people on outside the Court on Wednesday.

This investigation was a collaboration between the Staffordshire Police and the Charity Unseen and it was the first time new laws against enforced labour was used to prosecute criminals.

 The charity has been contacted to comment on this but has not responded yet.