Trafficked Vietnamese found not guilty
A judge has complimented a jury for
finding a Vietnamese man not guilty of cultivating cannabis on the
basis he was a victim of human trafficking. “I don't normally
express views on a jury decision, but I wholeheartedly agree,”
Judge Neil Rafferty told the jury in Omagh Crown Court. “It is a
tribute to the way you have behaved as a jury. Northern Ireland for
the past decade has been one of the prime routes for human
trafficking into the united Kingdom.” Defendant Nguyen Hung Van
(43) of The Mills, Coalisland, had been arrested in a police raid on
a cannabis growhouse in Coalisland in 2017. When questioned, he told
police: “I was there as a restult of being a slave.”
Former Director of Anti-Slavery
International Dr Aidan McQuade gave expert evidence on behalf of Van.
McQuade told the court there were six or seven indicators of forced
labour in Van's account. “Slavery or forced labout tends to be a
constellation of offences,” McQuade told the Court. While cannabis
factories tend to be staffed by young Vietnamese men and boys “The
pattern of exploitation he describes prior to being arrested is
typical of older men.
A police witness told the court Van's
arrest was part of an operation into South-East Asian crime gangs
operating cannabis plantations in Northern Ireland.
Van told the Court he came from a poor
and mountainous part of Vietnam. His mother had paid €35,000 to
traffickers to take him to France. A woman accompanied him and
several other trafficked migrants on a flight to Paris. She kept the
passports. He was only given it to get through immigration contol. “I
had a look at the passport,” he said. “My photo, not my name, my
age.” The passport was never returned to him. He was subsequently
moved to London. There he worked in take-aways, nail-shops and Asian
vegetable shops, working 12-hour days for £15 per day.
A Vietnamese gangmaster called Baô
paid him.
Then
he was taken to Dublin in a car with two others: a man who drove, and
a woman associate of Baô. In Dublin he worked cooking in takeaways
for €25 per day for 13 hour shifts. He lived with about 10 others
in a flat above a Chinese takeaway.
For a while, he was able to get a job
independently. “Under pressure from the gangsters, they had to let
me leave,” Van said. In the Vietnamese community “Baô
and his associated controlled everything.” When he returned to
their contol, the traffickers beat him on the legs. “You are very
well behaved, but your legs are naughty,” they told him. Members of
the same gang in Vietnam broke his mother's arm.
A European person then drove him to
Northern Ireland. He was unsure whether the man was Irish, or some
other nationality. He was supposedly to work in a restaurant.
However, he was taken to the house in Coalisland and left there with
a bag of groceries to tend the cannabis plants. “If I left that
house, they would find my mother and punish her,” he said.
Prosecution barrister Michael McAleer
pointed out there was a key in the back door of the house. He said
this meant Van could leave if he wished. Defence barrister asked
where was Van going to go as a “Vietnamese in Coalisland with no
money.” When arrested Van could not speak English. He has learned
some while on remand in prison over the past two years.
Other evidence given during the trial
indicated that the Vietnamese gangsters had local links. A police
witness said that the house had initially been rented by a man who
called himself George Hamilton. The owner told police 'Hamilton' had
a local accent. He paid £4,700 in cash in rent for the house. On one
occasion when 'Hamilton' met the owner, he was accompanied by an
Asian woman and a young Asian man. 'Hamilton' said these were his
wife and her son.
Van was not released after the verdict,
as he is currently in Maghaberry prison subject to a deportation
order. Defence barrister Ward said Van's solicitor Seamus Duffy
intends to fight that order.
Note: Edited versions of this piece were published in the 'Sunday World' of June 16th 2019 and the 'Tyrone Herald' of June 17th.
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