Children - particularly from Vietnam and China - are being trafficked to the UK to work as slaves in illegal cannabis farms.
These 'farms', run by organised crime gangs, are often situated in suburban houses. The children, generally aged between 14 and 16, are smuggled into the country before being locked in the houses to water cannabis plants. They have been found sleeping in cupboards or attics to make more space for plants, and are at constant risk of fire or electrocution due to illegal rewiring of electricity supplies.
Rather than being treated as victims, these children frequently suffer a second ordeal upon discovery by the authorities. A 2007 Home Office report on child trafficking describes how at least four Vietnamese children of the twenty two in the dataset were not identified as victims of trafficking and were arrested for cannabis cultivation.
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