Slavery hidden on your doorstep

Picture any house in a nice suburb of your town in the UK. It might be the house next door to you – your neighbours. The curtains are kept closed, and you’re not even sure if anybody lives there. People come and go from time to time.

Inside lies a shocking secret you never thought possible. Not in the UK. Not on your doorstep.

Then one day the house is raided by police and you see a scruffy looking Vietnamese couple trying to escape across gardens, eventually caught, handcuffed and taken away in a police car. Neighbours pour out onto the street to see the drama unfold as yet more police arrive and load hundreds of cannabis plants onto a van. It becomes clear that the house was being used as a cannabis factory.

But that’s not the most shocking crime. The truth is that the Vietnamese couple you saw – your neighbours – had been living for months as slaves to controlling drug producers.

It’s a true story that is unfolding right now all around the UK – on your doorstep. The victims in this kind of example are usually arrested, charged for growing cannabis, and either deported or imprisoned in the UK. The slavemasters behind it continue, moving to their next victims.

Freedom Trust will monitor stories of slavery in the UK, will research and tell the stories. Raising awareness will play an important role in bringing about change.

Similar Posts:

• Victims suffer when slavery slips through the net
• UK slavery stories & pictures
• Working to end slavery
• Anti-Slavery tells horrific story of sex slaves in London
• European Convention on Action Against Human Trafficking to become UK law in April 2009