ATTENDANCE NOTE: INITIAL INSTRUCTIONS SOLICITOR ATTENDING ON CLIENT IN DETENTION ENG 1HR i) My father died when I was 13. My mother and I lived alone in a village and one day disappeared. I was taken in by a neighbour. After some time he told me that I was going to go abroad to work. ii) I travelled via Russia. I do not know whether a passport was used. In Russia I stayed in a house for about a month. There were about 30 others in the house. After a month a man came and told me I was going to travel and should go with him and one of the other boys in the house. We took a plane and arrived at an airport. At the airport the agent took us through immigration control and told us to wait while he went to the toilet. He did not come back. The other boy contacted a relative and took me to London. iii) I stayed with him and his family for a while. A man then asked me if I wanted some work. I agreed and he took me to Barnsley. In Barnsley I had to look after some plants. I did not know what they were. The man would visit every couple of weeks and bring more noodles. iv) I do not want to go back to Vietnam because my dad was involved in politics and I believe this is why he disappeared.
IN THE MATTER OF THANH -and- SECRETARY OF STATE FOR THE HOME DEPARTMENT Draft WITNESS STATEMENT 1. My mother is still alive. She owes a lot of money to the neighbour who arranged for me to come to the UK. 2. I did not want to go to Barnsley but I had no choice. I think it was arranged by the family of the boy I travelled with. 3. My date of birth is 1994. In my country you are 1 when you are born. 4. My mother is receiving threats in Vietnam. 5. I am too frightened to give any further details.
SOLICITOR ATTENDANCE NOTE PURSUING FILE RECEIVED FROM CRIMINAL SOLICITOR ENG 1HR i) When police went to the house they recorded that The house was locked from the outside and we had to break in using wire cutters. ii) The front door was booby trapped from the outside. iii) There were pots of noodles and a sleeping bag but no other iv) food or necessities. The occupant of the house was thin and dirty when we arrived. v) He was advised to plead guilty because he was found in the house and had been cultivating cannabis. He admitted this in interview.
OBJECTIVE EVIDENCE Vietnam has been placed as a Tier 2 watch list country under the State Dept Trafficking in Persons report 2011, which means: 'Countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards AND: a) The absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing; b) There is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year; or c) The determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional future steps over the next year.' The US State Dept report states in the 'Prevention' section on Vietnam: 'While the Vietnamese government demonstrated some efforts in addressing transnational sex trafficking, it demonstrated overall inadequate law enforcement efforts to combat all forms of human trafficking during the reporting period, including in particular labor trafficking. ' [our emphasis]. It further states: 'The Vietnamese government has not made sufficient efforts to prevent labor trafficking by requiring destination governments to provide adequate safeguards against forced labor of its migrant workers. Government regulations of labor and marriage brokers remained in general weakly enforced.' [our emphasis]. There are no facilities in Vietnam for the care of male victims of trafficking. From the 'Protection' section of the US State Dept report: 'The government, however, lacks the resources and technical expertise to adequately support shelters, and as a result, in many areas shelters are rudimentary, underfunded, and lack appropriately trained personnel. Trafficking victims also are inappropriately housed at times in MOLISA shelters co-located with those of drug users rehabilitation and reintegration of individuals leaving prostitution. There are no shelters or services specifically dedicated to assisting male victims of trafficking or victims of labor trafficking.' [our emphasis]. 'The government has yet to employ systematic procedures nationwide to proactively and effectively identify victims of trafficking among vulnerable populations, such as women arrested for prostitution and migrant workers returning from abroad, and victim identification efforts remained poor across all identified migration and trafficking streams.' [our emphasis]. 'While authorities have formal procedures for receiving victims and referring them to care, there is wide recognition that the referral system has significant deficiencies and remains inadequate, including because of challenges of identifying victims who do not return via official border crossings and victims who do not want to be identified by authorities due to social stigma and other reasons.' [our emphasis].
'The government did not provide adequate legal protection or assistance in Vietnam or abroad from conditions of forced labor.' [our emphasis]. From the 'Issues with access to services' of the CEOPS report: 'Currently there are no support mechanisms for adult male victims of trafficking (section 4.2). The United Nations internationally recognised Palermo Protocol defines child victims of trafficking as being under 18, which varies from Vietnamese law where children are defined as being under 16 (3.4).' [our emphasis]. CEOPs 'Strategic threat assessment Child Trafficking in the UK, 2010:' 'All of the children identified in cannabis factories worked as gardeners, tending and watering the cannabis plants. As might be expected for a child, this is the bottom rung position within the criminal enterprise. Often children were isolated, locked in the property alone and sleeping in the premises. One child stated he slept on a quilt on the floor. It is unclear if the children were locked in to prevent escape or as a measure of security, as other criminal networks have been known to force entry to disrupt rival operations. Many stated they remained in the residence for the entirety of their exploitation. Those who did venture outside stated that they would be accompanied by a member of the criminal network. Restriction of freedom and movement was the most evident and commonly encountered form of abuse in exploitation but not the most serious. Three victims were emotionally abused and another physically harmed. As in the Chinese cases, Vietnamese children identified as victims of trafficking appear extremely wary of authorities and communicate little about their experiences in exploitation or about their captors. This may be because they are fearful for family members. Many will have unpaid debts, perhaps explaining their reasons for not disclosing information and going missing from care.' Association of Chief Police Officers position on 'Child Protection and Cannabis Cultivation on Children and Young People Recovered in Cannabis Farms' is that police 'should be alert to the possibility that any person, adult or child, identified in a cannabis farm could be a victim of trafficking.'