Dark truth behind UK cannabis cultivation revealed as short film exposes exploitation of Vietnamese minors

The reality of how cannabis is grown in the UK has been revealed in a short film exposing how Vietnamese children are transported across the world and forced to grow drugs in British houses.

As the number of Vietnamese minors reported as victims of trafficking soars to the highest on record, leading children’s charity Ecpat UK has launched an emotive animation film depicting how teenagers in Vietnam are promised work in Britain only to find themselves enslaved and criminalised when they get here.

The film, launched to coincide with Anti-Slavery Day, aims to educate statutory agencies about the increasing trend, which is seeing children being forced by organised crime gangs to grow drugs in houses across the UK but who often face criminalisation and prison.

It is hoped that the animation, which is based on real-life experiences of children Ecpat UK has supported, will also educate members of the public who use cannabis about the “dirty” supply chains of marijuana that often include child exploitation.

Created by Animage Films and Oscar-nominated animator Erica Russell, the short film depicts how a 15-year-old boy, under pressure to find work to earn money for his family in Vietnam, takes an offer from a man offering him work abroad.

But when he arrives in the UK with another Vietnamese boy, he recalls how they were taken by the man to a house and ordered to look after his plants, with threats that he would kill them if they ran away.

“We felt sick with the smell and we weren’t allowed out on our own. The man and his friend never gave us any money,” the boy says in the film.

“One day the police came and arrested us for growing drugs. I didn’t understand what was happening. That was the last time I saw my friend.”

The teenager explains how his friend was taken into foster care following his arrest, but went missing. In his case, he has says he has been accused of lying about his age and being a criminal.

“I am scared the man and his gang will find me and want no money. I’m scared I’ll go to prison. Why does nobody believe me?” he asks.

In 2016, there were 227 Vietnamese children identified as potential victims of modern slavery in the UK. In the first six months of this year alone, there were 169 referrals minors from Vietnam into the National Referral Mechanism (NRM) – the UK’s framework for identifying victims of trafficking – making it the top country for children being trafficked into the UK.

While the UK used to import most of its cannabis, by 2010, 50 per cent of marijuana was home-grown – and Britain is now actually exporting marijuana to meet demand from abroad.

The move from importing to exporting cannabis has occurred partly due to the involvement of organised Vietnamese gangs using residential properties as “factories”. These require significant manpower in order to nurture and harvest cannabis crops, which has led many criminal gangs to target children and young people in this form of forced labour.

Evidence shows that the most prevalent form of child trafficking in the UK is for forced labour in cannabis cultivation, and data from the NRM consistently shows that Vietnam is the single largest source country for child victims of trafficking.

Between 2000 and 2014, the number of cannabis farms detected by the police in the UK increased by more than 150 per cent. Of all the potential trafficking victims who were forced into cannabis cultivation, 96 per cent were from Vietnam, and 81 per cent of these were children.

The animation film, which has the support of the UK Anti-Slavery Commissioner, will be disseminated in Vietnam as a preventative tool to raise awareness among children, their families and the Vietnamese community of the risks of trafficking to unaccompanied children in Europe.

It will be premiered in London’s historic Frontline club on 17 October, and will also be launched in Vietnam in partnership with the Pacific Links Foundation as part of an innovative education programme in schools to help prevent young people being trafficked.

Chloe Setter, head of advocacy, policy and campaigns at Ecpat UK, urged that despite heightened awareness of the issue among police and professionals, large swathes of the public still are not aware of the exploitation within cannabis supply chains.

“Ecpat has been receiving referrals about children from Vietnam exploited in cannabis cultivation for more than a decade yet this is still a shock to many who use marijuana in the UK,” she told The Independent ahead of the launch.

“I think many people are unaware of the exploitation in cannabis supply chains and will want to consider the providence of their drugs in the future.

“In our experience, many vulnerable young people from Vietnam are treated as criminals before they are seen as victims of modern slavery, which only re-traumatises them and makes it more difficult to gain their trust.

“We want this film to help inform frontline workers about the rights of child victims of trafficking, as well as to reach out to children in Vietnam who may be at risk.”

Phil Brewer, lead police officer for the Metropolitan Police’s Modern Slavery and Kidnap Unit, who will be speaking at the launch event, told The Independent: ”Modern slavery remains a largely hidden crime. It is important that police and other professionals have a good understanding of the indicators of exploitation and are confident in how to access support for victims.

“When a potential victim is found in a scenario that would suggest they are complicit in a crime, such as a cannabis factory, we must consider whether this is something they have chosen to do or that they have no other option than to do.

“If it is the latter, then there is a high chance they are a victim of modern slavery.”

Jane Slater, Campaign Manager Anyone’s Child, an organisation campaigning for safe drug control, who will also be speaking at the launch, warned that the “poor and marginalised” were bearing the brunt of the UK’s current approach to drugs.

“As the film highlights, it is the poor and marginalised, in this case Vietnamese children, who bear the brunt of our current approach to drugs,” she said.

“By prohibiting cannabis we have just handed the market to criminals – the last people to care about child protection.

Ms Slater said the UK should follow the lead of countries like Canada, which is in the process of legalising and regulating cannabis specifically to take organised criminals out of the trade and to better protect young people.

“There will be no trafficked child labour in Canada’s licensed cannabis farms, and age controls at the point of sale will also help keep minors safe,” she added.

“But the UK is lagging behind. We must catch up not just with Canada, but many US states, Uruguay, parts of Spain and the Netherlands all of which have decided to legally control and regulate the market to protect the young and vulnerable.”

The film comes after The Independent revealed that social workers, lawyers and police officers are pleading with the Government to overhaul slavery policies because child victims of trafficking are slipping back into exploitation within weeks of being rescued.

They warned that children as young as 13, many of whom are from Vietnam as well as a number of other countries including the UK, are being identified as victims of slavery and recorded on the national database, but sliding back into exploitation within weeks or even days.

The Home Office has been approached for comment.