The Price of a Puff

Ten years ago, only 11 per cent of the marijuana used in the UK was grown domestically. Now that figure has grown to nearly 90 per cent. Last year, UK law enforcement uncovered 1.3 million cannabis plants worth an estimated $410m. During 2010, the police found nearly 7,000 factories during raids - the number has increased by 900 per cent in the past six years. The UK authorities estimate that 75 per cent of the criminal gangs involved in this trade are ethnically Vietnamese

Vietnamese children now make up the largest group of children being trafficked into the UK, primarily for exploitation in the cultivation of cannabis. According to the UK government's CEOP organisation (Child Exploitation and Online Protection Centre), nearly 300 children per year are trafficked into the country - and nearly a quarter can end up on cannabis farms. Children forced to work underground in the booming cannabis trade, held hostage by debt and poverty, are often prosecuted as criminals rather than victims of trafficking when discovered. The exploitation of Vietnamese children for criminal profit in the drugs industry is a disturbing trend that shows no signs of abating. Vietnamese crime gangs often use children who are exploitable because their families are in debt bondage to moneylenders in their native country to work on a production process that exists to meet spiralling demand for the drug on the streets of Britain.

Boys and girls - some as young as 13, many not older than 16, are forced to work as 'gardeners', trapped inside the buildings, 24 hours a day, tending and watering the plants behind blacked-out windows with no ventilation. Eating, sleeping and working under heat lamps and exposed daily to toxic chemicals, they run a constant risk of electrocution and fire. And all the time they face the violence, intimidation and extortion of gang members who are determined to wring everything out of them until their debts are paid off - if that day ever comes. But when the police identify and raid the premises the plight of these young people is far from over. More often than not they are treated as offenders in the narcotics business, rather than as potential victims of trafficking. Many Vietnamese minors have been charged, prosecuted and sentenced for the production and supply of cannabis, but only 58 children last year were deemed trafficked when found in these environments. And to date, there have been no known convictions of Vietnamese criminals who have trafficked children into the UK for the purpose of cannabis cultivation. Moreover, as many of them are psychologically disturbed by the emotional and physical trauma they have experienced, they are often terrified of revealing their stories to the police - not least because of fears that if they talk, their family members back in Vietnam will be punished for their failure to pay off outstanding debts owed to moneylenders connected to the gangs. If they are recovered by authorities they are under extreme pressure to abscond from care, with traffickers often making threats. Once bailed or released from custody, nearly two-thirds of Vietnamese children go missing from local authority care soon after. According to anecdotal reports from care advisers, some are re-trafficked and return to a new cannabis farm, while others go back to their traffickers to pay off debts and avoid deportation. The threat of violence against a child or their family members is used as a powerful tool to ensure cooperation.

Vietnam is one of the poorest countries in south-east Asia, and the country is heavily reliant on an estimated $2bn worth of remittances paid by Vietnamese workers overseas. Last year, nearly 100,000 migrants went abroad for work. In these circumstances the door is wide open for exploitation, both by illegal labour agencies and traffickers posing as potential recruiters for overseas employers. It is not uncommon for Vietnamese labour export companies, most of which are state-affiliated, to charge workers well in excess of the fees allowed by law, sometimes demanding as much as $20,000 up front for the opportunity to work abroad. Paying such sums back is extraordinarily difficult and Vietnamese expatriate workers and economic migrants are consequently highly vulnerable to debt bondage and forced labour. On arrival in destination countries, many workers find themselves compelled to work in dangerous or substandard conditions for little or no pay with no credible avenues of legal recourse. When the work itself is illegal, as is often the case, then the authorities are the last people to whom the workers can turn for help. Debt bondage is common, with the trafficking and criminal networks determining the amount of money the bonded worker will have to pay off through unpaid labour. The debt notionally covers travel arrangements, accommodation, food and trafficker fees, but the sums are often inflated and can take several years to work off.
In the UK, debt bondage sums have been found to range from between $25,000 and $60,000. In Vietnam, traffickers, often posing as 'middlemen' for the export labour market, will target isolated children or vulnerable families living in relative poverty. They may make false promises about a better life for the child in the UK, with the opportunity of education or work for the child so that they can support themselves or their relatives back home. A debt will often be placed on the child or their family that cannot afford the travel costs, often secured against a relative's land. Some of the victims are sent to Russia with fake ID cards and then travel to the Czech Republic, Germany and France, entering the UK by clandestine methods via a seaport. Upon arrival, they are ripe for exploitation by the gangs who bring them straight to cannabis factories. They usually know their families back home and are aware of the debt that must be paid off. Agents often provide travel documents but then take these documents off the children once they have been used, recycling them for use with other children. Agents trafficking Vietnamese victims often take back or instruct the child to destroy documentation before entering the UK. Without documentation, it is difficult to question the true identity, age and origin of a child, preventing or delaying removal and protecting the traffickers, thus keeping their trade underground.

http://english.aljazeera.net/programmes/peopleandpower/2011/07/201172795838377646.html