Vietnam’s child drug workers in the UK

The huge rise in the illicit production of cannabis across Britain is partly due to the availability of illegal Vietnamese immigrants, many of them children, to do the 'farming'.

The easing of laws on cannabis consumption has galvanised the market, allowing users to pay less on the street and enjoy a relaxed police attitude to their habit. But the consequences for children from Vietnam - a centre of cannabis cultivation dating back before the Vietnam war - have been tragic.

Many have been trafficked unaccompanied to Britain and then forced to work in intolerable circumstances. When police raid cannabis 'farms', the children are passed to Social Services, but often disappear into the black economy before they can be repatriated.

Jack Shieh, director of London's so-called Vietnamese Mental Health

john gibb on the trafficked children suffering in the boom in cannabis ‘farming’

Service, told The First Post there are around 30,000 Vietnamese living legally in Britain. It is widely believed there as many living here illegally. On top of this, there are many trafficked children waiting to be sent home - 60 in Southwark alone.

As yesterday's report on The First Post showed, hundreds of farms have been converted from rented houses in London - where they are raided at the rate of two a day - and in the suburbs of provincial towns. The streets are awash with weed, mostly the dangerously potent variety known as skunk.

Working conditions for those who tend the crops are risky and unhealthy. The lack of ventilation and the intense heat and light create a serious risk from fire and lung damage. The young 'gardeners' forced to tend the crops are often

locked in the houses.

After a police raid, assessment of

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