When Adi was given the opportunity to work in the UK he jumped at the chance, but the dream became a nightmare when he was forced to work in a cannabis farm
HEARING the lock break and the front door burst open, Adi* froze in fear as a dozen armed officers stormed through the door of the illegal cannabis farm where he was working.
Despite knowing he could end up in jail, tears of relief filled his eyes as the burly officers surrounded him and he realised he might finally be able to escape the life of slavery he'd been forced into.
For four months, exhausted Adi had been kept in a four-bed house crammed with hundreds of illegal cannabis plants which he had to cultivate for his evil gangmasters.
He'd come to the UK from Eastern Europe in search of work - but was tricked into accepting a job growing weed - and was kept captive in the makeshift factory against his will.
Here, he was paid less than £5 a day, beaten if the plants died - and forced to pay off spiralling debts after desperately borrowing money from a gang to pay for his critically-ill dad's medical bills back home.
Adi was told if he tried to escape, the gangmasters would kill his family - and his smartphone was confiscated to stop him phoning for help.
Terrified, he remained inside the house where he was forced to sleep on the kitchen floor and fed only bread and butter.
Tragically, Adi is just one of 136,000 victims of modern slavery currently living in the UK, with cannabis farming becoming a more and more a serious problem.
According to the Independent Drug Monitoring Unit, there are between 1.7 million and 3.6 million active cannabis users in the UK, with the market value estimated to be worth up to £8.6 billion.
As part of our Stamp Out Slavery Campaign in conjunction with the Co Op, Adi invited us to the remote safe house in north-west England where he now lives, and tells us how he fell victim to the UK’s dark underground slave trade.
Adi was first trafficked over to the UK in 2013 in the back of a truck.
Arriving in London, he took on manual labour jobs to pay off his traffickers, who charged him £1,500 to bring him over.
Then his dad was involved in a life-threatening car crash - and things went from bad to worse.
Adi says: “I needed money to pay for his treatment. I was desperate. I borrowed £1,200 in cash from an Eastern European loan shark, which I sent back home.”
However, over the coming months, Adi struggled to keep up with the crippling repayments and the amount he owed escalated until he owed a staggering £8,000.
Then, in 2017, an English man called Dan* “bought” his debt.
Knowing how desperate Adi was, Dan came up with a 'solution' - he promised to wipe most of Adi's debt, but in return he would have to look after a multi-million pound cannabis farm he’d created in a four-bed detached house.
Adi says: “He said lots of people grew cannabis and I wouldn’t have to do anything - just stay in the house - and I’d be able to pay off my debt much quicker."
However, it wasn’t that straight forward.
Adi - who gets too emotional and can't bring himself to recount the full extent of the harrowing threats the gang leaders would subject him to - says: “He started to tell me I was doing a bad job and I was scared it meant he wouldn’t take off my debt.
"He would always threaten me and my family, and say he’d report me - I didn’t have a passport so I was scared of the police.
"He would say it was my mess, and it wasn’t his problem.
"If I asked questions he would get irritated, and became upset if I said no so I kept quiet and did as I was told.
“He would push me about, and grab me by the collar, and tell me I wasn’t doing a good enough job.”
For Adi, life was hell, and he couldn’t see a way out.
He says: “The gang would come round once a month, and give me loaves of bread and butter to eat.
"The electricity for the house was stolen via a big cable and my smartphone was confiscated.
“I wasn’t allowed out, and was told they were watching me.
"I had a small room initially, but after two weeks had to sleep on the floor of the kitchen while cannabis was grown in the bedrooms.
"The house was damp and cold, and I almost became ill from it.
"I felt I couldn’t tell my family what was happening. I was told if the police ever did a raid to deny knowing who was involved.”
Slavery takes a variety of forms, but most commonly forced labour, sexual exploitation, domestic work or forced criminal activity.
The Home Office estimated that there are 13,000 people held in slavery in the UK, with the Global Slavery Index suggesting the figure could be as many as 136,000.
The UK recognised a staggering 5,145 victims from 116 countries in 2017, including adults who had been used for organ harvesting and children that were forced into sexual exploitation.
At present, trafficked victims have just 45 days government support after being recognised as a victim. Campaigners and businesses say this is not enough time for victims to find a place to live and means to support themselves so they risk becoming homeless and destitute.
We want the government to:
Back Lord McColl's proposed bill, which suggests all victims of modern slavery should be given a year to recover, and alongside that they should be given special support to help them, including housing benefits, financial support and other services.
Adi's escape finally came in December 2018, when the police raided the property in the early afternoon after neighbours reported an odd smell.
Adi says: “I was scared, so I didn’t say much in the beginning - I thought I would be sent straight back home with staggering debt I would have to still pay off, and I could only earn £7 a day there.
"However, it was also a relief - I was safe from the gangmasters, at least.”
Later that day, Adi gave a statement, and he was referred to a Salvation Army safe house in Lancashire.
Adi is one of the lucky ones. Because he was identified as a victim by the police he was referred to the charity and provided with an allowance and safe accommodation - but even then, his right to remain in the UK is not guaranteed.
He says: “It’s bad that this still happens. I’ve been lucky. Thankfully I’ve had a lot of support - it would be good for more people to have this kind of experience.”
While Adi was lucky enough to be rescued, tragically children are still being trafficked to the UK and forced to work in cannabis cultivation.
Vietnamese orphan Stephen is just one of the cases which has come to light in recent years.
He was just ten when he was trafficked to the UK, sold from one gang to another, before being forced to work in a cannabis farm, mixing hazardous chemicals to water the plants.
He was plied with vodka and whiskey, and made to take white powder, which he later believed to be cocaine.
In 2017, 13 Vietnamese children went missing after being trafficked to the UK in the back of a lorry, thought to be victims of trafficking gangs who forced them to work in cannabis farms.
Jakub Sobik of Antislavery International says: "Hundreds, potentially thousands, of Vietnamese children are trafficked into the UK and forced to look after cannabis plants in small factories scattered across Britain.
"They fall for attractive job offers abroad that would give them a chance to lift themselves out of poverty in mainly rural areas of Vietnam, and what they find here in the UK is merciless exploitation without a way out.
"Their lives are controlled by ruthless criminal drug gangs, who don’t hesitate to use violence and threats against the people they exploit and their families back home.
"People exploited in the drug industry also fear that they will be treated as criminals, and that is being made worse by the fact that unfortunately they are often not wrong.
The police, prosecutors and judges often fail to see beyond the surface and send such victims to jail instead of protecting them from the real criminals that still enjoy impunity. We must do much more to protect, rather than neglect vulnerable victims of slavery in Britain."
If you or someone else needs support please contact The Salvation Army’s 24/7 confidential referral helpline on 0300 303 8151.
