SO HARD TO BE FREE OF CHAINS
LAST month, a victim of modern slavery saved from deportation was given a five-year reprieve to stay and work in Scotland as a refugee.
Duc Nguyen was due to be put on a plane two years ago and sent back to Vietnam but the Home Office cancelled the move following protests.
Duc, 46, had been trafficked to England, where he was held captive and forced to work 15 hours a day for no pay in a cannabis farm.
After eight months, the farm was raided but Duc ended up serving six months in Wandsworth Prison in London before it was accepted that he was a victim of trafficking.
He was released on bail in 2018 and moved to Glasgow, where he worked for projects supporting those locked in poverty.
But after an appeal for asylum was refused, he was taken to Dungavel House in Lanarkshire, then to Colnbrook in Middlesex, to await deportation.
Glasgow councillor Kim Long organised the #Ducmakesglasgow campaign that led to his deportation being axed.
In May, the Record published a photo of a suspected human trafficking victim fleeing naked from a plush house in Cambuslang, near Glasgow – only to be dragged back inside by his captors.
Two men were arrested when police swooped.
Anti-trafficking campaigners warned that lockdown created an even more dangerous environment for victims.
Andrew Wallis, chief executive of Unseen, said: “The car washes and nail bars have disappeared but that’s not to say the victims of modern slavery have disappeared too.
“They’re still there and might even be in a more desperate situation.”