An urgent need has arisen to reform Muslim Marriage & Divorce Act (MMDA) of 1951. Before I explain the reasons why, let us see how this Act came about.
Based on representations made by the Kathis Association, the government set up an all-male committee in 1939 comprising the Registrar General and Mahrooms M. I. Akbar, T. B. Jayah, A. R. A. Razik, M. C. Abdul Cader, M.I.M. Hanifa and M. S. M. Shamsudeen, to study the Sri Lanka General Marriage Ordinance of 1907, towards formulating a Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act. Certain sections of the report were included in the new Muslim Marriage and Divorce Act No. 13 of 1951, which came into operation on 1st August 1954. This effectively repealed the Sri Lanka General Marriage Ordinance of 1907.
These eminent Gentlemen (including my Great Grandfather, Dr. T. B. Jayah), were hand-picked for the job taking into consideration their vast knowledge and standing in the community. I can imagine the lengthy deliberations which would have gone into drafting the MMDA, whilst retaining some Sections from the Ordinance and incorporating new Provisions, which at the time would have been deemed necessary.
But, now, with the changing times, the need has arisen to bring about reforms to the MMDA, taking into consideration fundamental rights of girls and women, especially their right to education without being married off at an early age, their right to equal autonomy and decision-making in entering into their own marriages, divorces, the women’s and children’s right to maintenance, to name a few. This brings to mind the following quotes from the great Nobel Laureate Malala Yousafzai
“I raise my voice not so I can shout, but so that those without a voice can be heard. We cannot succeed when half of us are held back. We call upon our sisters around the world to be brave, to embrace the strength within themselves and realize their full potential. So here I stand, one girl among many. I speak not for myself, so those without a voice can be heard. Those who have fought for their rights. Their right to be treated with dignity. Their right to equality of opportunity. Their right to be educated.”
These can only be assured by bringing in reforms to the MMDA of 1951 and incorporating the Justice and Equality component to the new one. Also, any Committee engaged in this endeavor should comprise of qualified individuals well versed on Fundamental rights and the equality component and there should 50% representation of women.
Last, but not least, the state must get involved in MMDA reforms and ensure Equality, Justice and Non-discrimination to all its citizens, including Muslim Men, Women and Children. With the constitution of Sri Lanka, in Chapter III, under Fundamental Rights, addressing the component Right to Equality 12. (1), it is its bounden duty/responsibility to assist with the MMDA reforms.
Had great grandfather been alive today (may his soul Rest In Peace), I would have been able to convince him of the need to bring in the Justice and Equality Component and reforming the MMDA towards assuring the rights of not only Muslim women and children but those of men as well. Come to think of it, this is what he would have expected me to do.
I’d like to end this note with a quote by him, which amply demonstrates this fact;
According to information I have received a 15-year-old girl was sexually abused on 25th February 2017. Despite the family members filing a complaint with the Maskeliya Police Station, the case has not been properly investigated. The alleged suspect, who comes from a wealthy family, was simply released. He had appeared before a Magistrate without considering medical reports from two hospitals where the victim was treated. The victim’s family says that because they are very poor, the police have not given them proper attention in their quest for justice. This case clearly illustrates the collapse of the rule of law in the country.
CASE NARRTIVE:-March 21, 2017
According to information received, Ms. X (not her real name), is a 15 year old girl of Hapugastenna Watte, Maskeliya, in Nuwara Eliya District. She is a student in year 11, who is preparing to sit for the GCE O/L exam in 2017 at Luckam Tamil School, Maskeliya in Nuwara Eliya District. Ms. X was living with her mother who is employed at the Poultry farm in Norton Bridge. Ms. X has one elder sister and one younger sister. They are deprived. The mother is the breadwinner of the family and is chronically ill herself.
On 25th February 2017 Ms. X went to the forest close to the roadside to collect some firewood. As she was returning, a person named Selvanathan (55), and living in the same village, dragged her to the back of the shop where he was working. The owner and other customers were not present at the time of the incident. She was afraid, started screaming for help, but no one heard her cries. Though she struggled to run away from the shop, she was not able to do so.
Then the suspect took Ms. X to the kitchen of the grocery shop. She was forced to lie on a bench. Her clothes were removed and she was sexually abused. With difficulty, she was able to escape to her house. She immediately told everything to her mother who was too sick to go to the police to file a report on the same day. When Ms. X went to school on the 3rd March 2017, she told friends what had happened to her. They reported this to the teachers and to the principal who reported the incident to the Maskeliya Police Station. Police officers came to the school and took Ms. X and her mother. Following their recorded statements, the police arrested the suspect.
Ms. X was admitted to the Maskeliya Government Hospital. On 4th March 2017 she was transferred to the Nuwara- Eliya General Hospital and admitted to Ward 9, being discharged on 8th March.
Later, the victim’s family learned that the police had produced the suspect before the Hatton Magistrate. According to the mother, even before her daughter was released from the hospital, the suspect Selvanathan was released by the Hatton Magistrate. The victim stated that the police did not properly investigate her case. All the evidence pertaining to the crime was not properly, timely and scientifically collected and recorded. The police did not pick up the medical reports from the two hospitals. As a result, the Hatton Magistrate was not provided with sufficient evidence for his enquiries into the case.
The victim’s mother states that the suspect is rich and has given a good deal of money to the police. Nor have the police produced any authentic evidence to support her daughter’s case. So, the suspect was released on bail. She said that she is very poor and illiterate and did not understand the procedural steps of the legal system. The case has been postponed to 3 May 2017.
The victim and her family members stated that the police have not properly investigated the crime. Rather, they have acted to protect the suspect of this heinous crime, using the country’s criminal law system. They are demanding justice. They are asking for a prompt, effective, impartial, and independent investigation into the crime.
SUGGESTED ACTION:
Please write to the authorities listed below expressing your concern about this case. Request an immediate inquiry into the allegations of not investigating the crime of sexual abuse by the police. Demand prosecution of those proven to be responsible under our criminal law system. All officers involved should be subject to internal investigations for breach of Police Departmental Orders.
The AHRC will also write a separate letter to the Special Rapporteur on Violence against Women and the Chairman of the UN Child Rights Committee in this regard. PLEASE SEND YOUR LETTERS TO:
1. Mr. Pujith Jayasundara Inspector General of Police New Secretariat Colombo 1 SRI LANKA Fax: +94 11 2 440440 / 327877 E-mail: igp@police.lk
2. Mr. Jayantha Jayasooriya PC Attorney General Attorney General's Department Colombo 12 SRI LANKA Fax: +94 11 2 436421 E-mail: ag@attorneygeneral.gov.lk
3. Secretary National Police Commission 3rd Floor, Rotunda Towers 109 Galle Road Colombo 03 SRI LANKA Tel: +94 11 2 395310 Fax: +94 11 2 395867 E-mail: npcgen@sltnet.lk or polcom@sltnet.lk
Q Is it true that as expressed by certain UNP Ministers and MPs, that this is the result of two different ideologies being represented in the government?
There is some truth in that. It is opportune to come out of this political frame even though it is an arduous task. This is something unusual for many. Viewing from outside it is natural that there are issues, but overall; leaving aside this system of change of government, ground work had been done for far-reaching development of the country which may not be visible to the naked eye.
Q For a government which laboured for two years to lay the foundation, could they complete the brick work and put up the roof in the next three years?
We have to prove it at the end of this year, failing which, there may be severe issues.
Palestinians take part in an August 2016 rally in support of Mohammad El Halabi, Gaza director for World Vision, whom Israel accuses of diverting funds to Hamas. An Australian government investigation has refuted the Israeli allegations against the charity.Abed Rahim KhatibAPA images
The Australian government has cleared the international Christian charity World Vision of diverting funds to Hamas.
“The Australian Department of Foreign Affairs and Trade (DFAT) says an internal review into World Vision funding in Gaza has uncovered nothing to suggest any diversion of government aid funding to Hamas,” the country’s public broadcaster ABC reported on Tuesday.
Tim Costello, the head of World Vision Australia, welcomed the finding, which he said confirmed those of his own organization.
“So far, our own ongoing forensic audit has not uncovered any money subverted and to hear DFAT say their investigation hasn’t either is consistent and is very good news,” Costello told ABC.
In June 2016, Israel’s Shin Bet intelligence agency arrested World Vision’s Gaza director Mohammed El Halabi and accused him of diverting tens of millions of dollars to Hamas’ military wing.
World Vision rejected the Israeli allegations, noting that the sums Israel claimed had been diverted far exceeded its entire program budget in Gaza.
In the wake of Israel’s allegations, the Australian government suspended its funding for World Vision’s work in Palestine and launched the investigation.
When his trial began in August last year, human rights defenders condemned Israel’s use of secret proceedings.
“Secret trials are the most flagrant violation of the right to a public hearing. Holding these court proceedings behind closed doors would render any convictions obtained unsound,” said Magdalena Mughrabi of Amnesty International’s Middle East and North Africa program.
Smear campaign
The Tel Aviv newspaper Haaretzquoted “Western diplomats” last August saying Israel had only been interested in creating a “public diplomacy buzz” and had not provided a shred of evidence to any donor country to support the claims that World Vision funds had been transferred to Hamas.
The conclusion of the Australian government inquiry deals another blow to Israel’s smear campaign against humanitarian organizations.
The trial of El Halabi, who has refused an Israeli plea bargain offer, is ongoing.
Meanwhile, Israel continues to target aid workers.
In January, Wahid al-Bursh an employee of the United Nations Development Programaccepted a plea deal and was sentenced to seven months in prison, a relatively light term given the gravity of Israel’s claims that he had “aided Hamas.”
On Tuesday, Israel revealed details of its allegations against Muhammad Murtaja, director of the Gaza office of Turkey’s international aid agency. Israel arrested Murtaja in February, claiming he had diverted funds to Hamas.
Murtaja’s lawyer has denied all of Israel’s allegations and said the accusations fit Israel’s pattern of targeting aid agencies.
Also in February, UNRWA, the UN agency for Palestine refugees, suspended the head of its staff union in Gaza after Israel claimed that he had been elected to the leadership of Hamas.
Suheil al-Hindi denied the claims, telling Ma’an News Agency that he was “shocked” by the Israeli accusations and by his suspension.
A policeman points a gun at a man on the floor as emergency services attend the scene outside the Palace of Westminster, London. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
Guardian staff-Wednesday 22 March 2017
Four people have died, including a police officer, and at least 20 people have been injured in a major terror attack outside the Houses of Parliament, the Metropolitan police have confirmed.
Mark Rowley, the head of counter-terrorism at the Met, said a police officer had died after being stabbed by a lone attacker attempting to enter the House of Commons. The suspect was shot and killed.
Moments earlier, at about 2.40pm, the attacker drove a vehicle at speed into pedestrians on Westminster Bridge, near parliament, killing two people.
Rowley said at least 20 people, including three officers, were hurt in the attack on the bridge. A diplomatic source told Reuters three French students were among the injured.
“This is a day we’ve planned for but hoped would never happen. Sadly it’s now a reality,” Rowley said. “The attack started when a car was driven over Westminster Bridge hitting and injuring a number of members of the public, also including three police officers on their way back from a commendation ceremony.
“The car then crashed near to parliament and at least one man armed with a knife continued the attack and tried to enter parliament.
“Sadly, I can confirm that four people have died. That includes the police officer protecting parliament and one man we believe to be the attacker, who was shot by a police firearms officer. The officer’s family have been made aware. At least 20 people have been injured.”
One woman is believed to have been thrown over the bridge into the river Thames – and later pulled alive from the water – while another fell on to a hard surface below the bridge.
The suspected attacker attended by emergency services at the scene outside the Palace of Westminster. Photograph: Stefan Rousseau/PA
The vehicle came to a halt on the pavement, up against railings to the north of New Palace Yard, the green space adjacent to Big Ben, opposite an entrance to Westminster tube station.
A man with a knife was then seen running through the gates of the Palace of Westminster, across New Palace Yard and stabbing a police officer. The attacker continued his rampage, targeting a second officer, according to witnesses, but was shot by police as he approached the second officer clutching his knife.
In the aftermath of the attack, the Foreign Officer minister Tobias Ellwood reportedly helped treat the injured officer. The Bournemouth MP, a former soldier, was pictured helping the police officer in Parliament Square. His brother Jonathan was killed in the 2002 Bali terror attack.
Colleen Anderson, a junior doctor, said a female pedestrian had died. She also said she treated a police officer in his 30s with a head injury who had been taken to King’s College hospital. “I confirmed one fatality. A woman. She was under the wheel of a bus. She died, confirmed her death at the scene,” she said.
The prime minister was expected to chair a meeting of the government’s emergency Cobra committee on Wednesday evening. A Downing Street spokesman said: “The thoughts of the PM and the government are with those killed and injured in this appalling incident, and with their families. The PM is being kept updated and will shortly chair COBR.”
Theresa May was in the Commons lobby when the incident occurred, according to the health secretary, Jeremy Hunt. He was with other ministers in a cabinet sub-committee when they were told of the incident.
Commander BJ Harrington, head of the Met’s public order command, said a full counter-terrorism investigation was under way. Harrington said the Met received a number of different reports, which included a report of a person in the river, a car in collision with pedestrians and a man armed with a knife.
The acting Met commissioner, Craig Mackey, was driving by parliament on his way to a meeting when the attack took place, Harrington said. He left his vehicle to help officers deal with the incident and was being treated as a witness.
Police asked people to avoid the following areas: Parliament Square, Whitehall, Westminster Bridge, Lambeth Bridge, Victoria Street up to the junction with Broadway, and the Victoria Embankment up to Embankment tube.
The Commons leader, David Lidington, told MPs in the moments after the attack that a police officer had been stabbed” and the “alleged assailant was shot by armed police” following a serious incident within the parliamentary estate.
People flee parliament as gunshots ring out – video
Pictures emerged after the incident showing people lying injured on Westminster Bridge, some of them bleeding.
Two people could be seen lying within New Palace Yard, immediately outside Westminster Hall. The sitting in the House of Commons was suspended while police officers sealed off the area. Staff inside parliament were told to stay inside their offices.
Minutes after the incident, an emergency services helicopter landed in Parliament Square, as sirens were heard outside. Air ambulance medics came from the helicopter to assist the casualties.
Footage of car after crash into railings outside Parliament - videoImmediately before the incident, at about 2.45pm, people were seen running from the direction of Westminster Bridge and around the corner into Parliament Square.
Rob Lyon, 34, from Rugby, was walking along Westminster Bridge with a colleague when he saw a 4x4 vehicle travelling at high-speed, hitting pedestrians. He said: “I heard a wheel definitely hit a kerb, quite a loud crunch noise. I looked up and saw a car clearly hitting people as it came towards me.
“A colleague I was with, James, I heard him sort of shout. I instinctively jumped off the pavement. I could see people being hit. And then the car just carried on up the bridge and I just looked around and was really in shock.”
Radoslaw Sikorski captured the aftermath of the attack on Westminster Bridge on video. Sikorski, a senior fellow at the Harvard Centre for European Studies, said: “I heard what I thought was just a collision and then I looked through the window of the taxi and [saw] someone down, obviously in great distress.”
Rick Longley said he saw the car crash into the railings and a man leap out. “We were just walking up to the station and there was a loud bang and a guy, someone, crashed a car and took some pedestrians out,” he said. “They were just laying there and then the whole crowd just surged around the corner by the gates just opposite Big Ben.
“A guy came past my right shoulder with a big knife and just started plunging it into the policeman.”
Pat McCormack, 21, from Washington in Tyne and Wear saw an attacker stabbing the police officer. “I saw him stabbing the officer in the back of the head and the back of the neck. He was running away but then he collapsed.”
A member of the public is treated by emergency services. Photograph: Carl Court/Getty Images
The Labour leader, Jeremy Corbyn, said: “There’s been an extremely serious incident in parliament today. Lives have been lost and people have been seriously injured. I want to thank the police and all the security services who did so much to keep the public, those who work in parliament and MPs safe. Our thoughts are with those who have suffered loss and those who have seen terrible injuries this afternoon.”
Steve White, the chair of the Police Federation of England and Wales, which represents tens of thousands of rank-and-file officers, said: “No words can capture how members of the policing family will feel after today’s horrific events. We have lived in the knowledge that an attack on UK soil has been highly likely for nearly three years. Everyone is firmly aware of this fact, but it makes it no less shocking when it becomes a reality.
“This incident highlights the very real risks that police face each and every day. Officers will tonight take the opportunity to hug loved ones and seek comfort in the company of friends and family. But one will not. The pain of that officer’s family, friends and colleagues will be shared by us all.
“Our hearts go out to their family and our thoughts are with them and their colleagues at this terrible time along with others who have been injured today.”
The incident took place a year to the day after the terror attack on Brussels, which killed 32 people and left 320 injured.
Secret Service members wait with a motorcade before President-elect Donald Trump disembarks his plane in Hebron, Ky., on Dec. 1, 2016. (Jabin Botsford/The Washington Post) By Drew Harwell and Amy BrittainMarch 22 at 1:10 PM
The U.S. Secret Service requested $60 million in additional funding for the next year, offering the most precise estimate yet of the escalating costs for travel and protection resulting from the unusually complicated lifestyle of the Trump family, according to internal agency documents reviewed by The Washington Post.
The Washington Post's Jenna Johnson and Aaron Blake explain why President Trump spends so much time at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, and how he uses it as a second White House.(Peter Stevenson/The Washington Post)
Volodymyr Horbulin is one of Ukraine’s most accomplished elder statesmen. After a long and storied career as a scientist and administrator in the USSR, he took on a leading role in Ukraine’s peaceful transition to democracy once the Soviet Union collapsed. Born in 1939, his father (like so many fathers and mothers in Ukraine) suffered consecutive invasions from the USSR, Nazi Germany, and the USSR. Through it all, Mr. Horbulin remained a patriot, and a believer in European-style human rights and Western Democracy.
Women refugees are ignored, female MPs are hounded out of office - Saddam's fall brought a new system, but patriarchy still grips Iraq
Yazi Shennari's house in Fallujah was destroyed in fighting with IS (MEE/Jonathan Steele)--Nada Ibrahim with refugee families in Bahgdad (MEE/Jonathan Steele)
Iraqi women flee Mosul. Many internal refugees have been left without government aid (Reuters)-Fawzia Ferhan Hussein lives as a refugee in Baghdad, and cannot return to Fallujah (MEE/Jonathan Steele)
BAGHDAD, Iraq - They have one of the best addresses in Baghdad and some of the worst accommodation. An unimpeded view of the slow-moving waters of the Tigris is little compensation for the misery of some 6,000 refugee families from Fallujah who live on the corniche in the northern suburb of Adamiyeh.
They have been forced to take shelter in half-completed flats and office buildings not far from two-storey family homes which spread along the suburb's quiet and leafy streets.
"We've been here over two and a half years, since Daesh [Islamic State] occupied Fallujah," said Fawzia Ferhan Hussein, a widowed grandmother, wearing a black hijab.
One of my sons went to check on our house and found it in ruins... there's nothing to go back to.
- Fawzia Ferhan Hussein
Her six married children live near her in the concrete shell of the building which they now call home. They lived for some months under IS control but managed to escape in small boats along the Euphrates, followed by a walk across the desert at night.
The families have grown resourceful from their bitter experiences. In their new home the men have erected plywood walls to create tiny cubicles for each couple, who sleep on mats on the floor.
They have run pipes from the official water mains to install taps on each staircase or in individual families' kitchens. A network of wires bring them electricity from the grid.
"When we left Fallujah, we first rented a house until our money ran out. Then we came here," says Hussein.
"One of my sons went back a month ago to check on our house and found it in ruins, partly burnt and partly blown up. So there's nothing to go back to."
Holding one of her children to her chest, she and her husband initially moved to Diyala province but found it hard to get work. Now he works as a day labourer in Baghdad.
The families get no government help, they say. A few neighbours bring them food occasionally.
One of their main supporters is Nada Ibrahim al-Jiboury, who regularly supplies them from her own income.
A consultant anaesthiologist, Jiboury has set up a non-governmental organisation called the Iraqi Woman and Future, hired teachers and carers for a nursery, and registered the 36,000 people (roughly six to each family) who live along the corniche and in other parts of Adamiyeh.
Ibrahim's career illustrates the vices and virtues of Iraq's political system as well as the difficulties for a woman to break through the country's traditional patriarchy.
The constitution adopted after Saddam Hussein's removal from power requires at least a quarter of MPs to be women. But this step forward runs into multiple difficulties in practice.
"There are a lot of challenges being a woman in Iraqi politics," she told Middle East Eye.
Ibrahim served as an MP from 2005 until 2014 on a list headed by a prominent Sunni politician, Saleh al-Mutlaq, which was part of a coalition called the Iraqi Front for National Dialogue.
The Iraqi election system is based on proportional representation. Initially voters merely ticked their preferred list of names, but in the 2010 election the choice was opened. Voters could tick the name of their preferred candidate on whatever list they liked.
"This created huge competition between the three men and one woman who would get into parliament if the list was successful," Ibrahim said.
The issue came to a head in the 2014 election. According to the result sheets which are posted on the wall at every polling station as soon as the counting is complete, she came top of her party's list with 4,100 votes, the biggest score for a Sunni woman in Baghdad, she said.
A colleague told me: 'Nada, you're a fool. You've been an MP for eight years and you've not made money'.
- Nada Ibrahim, former MP
The results are taken down within 24 hours and Ibrahim was told by colleagues that she would have to pay a bribe of hundreds of thousands of dollars to the Independent Election Commission to have her victory confirmed.
They also advised her that otherwise her party leader would be declared to have won most votes and would take the only seat the list was entitled to. Too few voters had chosen the list for it to qualify for more that one seat in the new parliament.
"I was outraged," Ibrahim told MEE. "When I said I didn't have that kind of money and would not pay anyway, a colleague told me: 'Nada, you're a fool. You've been an MP for eight years and you've not made money'."
Ibrahim had become unpopular with many male MPs, she said, "because I was seen as a threat when they found a woman who was empowered and made speeches".
"I also had contacts with people and was active outside the Green Zone," she said, a reference to the heavily guarded government district housing parliament, embassies and private residences of MPs and ministers. It is almost impossible for ordinary citizens to get in.
Ibrahim no longer practises medicine. Instead, she devotes herself to her NGO for women.
It focuses on domestic abuse and violence against women but also runs basic employment courses for young refugees, men as well as women, training them in mobile phone maintenance and electrical mechanics.
Although she does not blame them, she is worried by the large number of young Iraqis who have left the country, including women, since Germany opened its door to refugees.
"There have been many positive changes since Saddam fell. There is freedom of speech, of newspapers and TV, of travel; the freedom to form political parties and to vote for them," she told MEE.
"But there are negatives. Violence is very severe. Government collapsed in large parts of the country when Daesh came. There's sectarianism throughout the political discourse, and corruption is massive."
Ibrahim maintains her political contacts and the temptation to go back into the parliamentary arena is strong. With 15 friends she recently formed a new party, called the Party of National Power and Unity.
In spite of its name, it is largely Sunni. The cancer of sectarianism implanted by the US-led invasion of 2003 is hard to eradicate, she admits.
Canada's Prime Minister Justin Trudeau and Finance Minister Bill Morneau walk from Trudeau's office to the House of Commons to deliver the budget on Parliament Hill in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, March 22, 2017. REUTERS/Chris Wattie
Canadian federal budgets will focus more on women in a bid to lift their job prospects, improve their quality of life and narrow the country's wide wage gap between the sexes, the government said on Wednesday, a move that underscores the feminist credentials of Liberal Prime Minister Justin Trudeau.
The latest budget, unveiled on Wednesday, included for the first time a separate gender statement detailing the main challenges facing women.
Finance Minister Bill Morneau told Parliament that fewer women joined the workforce than men, and noted they found it harder to reach senior roles in Canadian companies.
"That means as a country we aren't taking full advantage of the talents, insights and experience of more than half of our population. It seems unfathomable, but it's true," he said.
"It's why we need to do better."
Trudeau, who took power in November 2015, has stressed the importance of gender equality and made a point of appointing a cabinet with the same number of men and women.
While women account for 47 percent of the workforce compared with 38 percent in 1976, Canada has one of the highest gender wage gaps - 19.3 percent - in the 35-nation Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development.
The budget contained two measures spread over 11-years that the Liberals said should help address the issue - a program to boost early learning and child care and one to build more affordable housing.
The budget statement said women were disproportionately represented in lower-paying occupations and noted that mothers were less likely to work full-time thanks to challenges such as child care.
It also noted that women and girls were more likely to experience poverty, violence and harassment and have trouble finding affordable housing.
Morneau said the statement "ensures all budget measures - not just those aimed specifically at women - help us advance the goals of fairness, workforce participation and gender equality."
The 2016 budget increased child benefits, included measures to make post-secondary education more affordable and committed more money to affordable housing. Ottawa is also looking at flexible working arrangements for federally regulated employees.
(Reporting by David Ljunggren; editing by Dan Burns)
Human rights and anti-trafficking organisations are calling on authorities to tackle these illegal operations and crack down on drug gangs believed to be committing human rights abuses and profiting from slave labour.
In the UK, “cannabis farms” are usually relatively small operations, often located in inner city houses, which have been stripped and fitted with ventilation, lighting and watering systems.
These so-called “farms” are usually tended by one or two gardeners, who are locked inside the premises.
Their only access to the outside word comes through food deliveries and gardening instructions sent by the drug gangs.
A typical cannabis farm contains around 1,000 plants and generates profits of up to £500,000 (US$622,000) for the gangsters each year, such as the cannabis farm in Plymouth, which had been tended by Vietnamese “gardener” Van Nguyen.
Demand for cannabis across the UK remains high with an over two million people using it each year. Casual users are unlikely to be punished with anything more than a fine if they are caught with small quantities of the drug.
Cannabis can be grown indoors using the right ventilation, lighting and watering systems. Source: Shutterstock/photolona
Vietnamese gangs’ control of the UK’s “homegrown” cannabis market is said to have risen from around 15 percent in 2005 to 90 percent. Looking to capitalise on the high demand for cannabis, Vietnamese gangs in the UK have been increasing the scale of their operations in recent years.
Last year, British police discovered large cannabis farms managed by these gangs in some surprising premises, including an ex-Barclays bank, a disused sports centre, and a recently-emptied medical centre.
Recent arrests indicate how ambitious Vietnamese drug gangs have become.
In February, it was discovered the former Defence Ministry nuclear bunker, RGHQ Chilmark, which was built in 1985 to serve as the regional government headquarters in the event of a nuclear attack, had been converted into a huge underground marijuana farm of several thousand plants worth an estimated £1 million (US$1.2 million).
During a raid, police found three Vietnamese teenagers tending the huge site. Detective Inspector Paul Franklin from Wiltshire police said officers recognised the four gardeners were victims, explaining, “No one would do this by choice.”
He described the living and working conditions at the site as “grim for anyone,” adding, “This was slave labour.”
Vietnamese drug gangs’ use of teenage slaves within the UK has been known to authorities for years.
In 2015 during a visit to Vietnam, then-prime minister David Cameron promised to crack down on the trafficking of children to work cannabis farms. However, the flow of Vietnamese children into the country continues without the prosecution of a people trafficker from Vietnam ever reaching the courts.
Criminal gangs had for years been using the “Calais Jungle” refugee and migrant encampment in France and its population of 7,000 migrants as a secret holding station to for Vietnamese children.
The children are kept at the encampment before they are smuggled across the English Channel to the UK and forced to work in “cannabis farms” where they were regularly subjected to sexual abuse.
National Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Children chief executive Peter Wanless said: “We are facing a difficult and dangerous situation where children are being brought to Calais by crime gangs on what is the final leg of a horrendous journey.
“They are then being held and sometimes hidden in the encampment while the criminals wait for an opportunity to move them into the UK where they can be abused and exploited.”
The Calais Jungle. Source: Wikimedia Commons
In 2015, former head of the UK’s Counter Human Trafficking Bureau Philip Ishola said: “By our calculations, there are around 3,000 Vietnamese children in the UK who are being used for profit by criminal gangs.
“Police and the authorities are now aware trafficked children are being forced to work in cannabis farms, but this is really only the tip of the iceberg. Often the same child will be exploited not just in a cannabis farm, but also in myriad different ways. This is happening right under our noses and not enough is being done to stop it.”
How the Vietnamese children get caught up in these tragic circumstances is highlighted in a recent child trafficking report published by the Salvation Army, which describes the experience of one such Vietnamese teenager who was eventually rescued.
The report explains how a gang, pursuing family debt that had arisen because of medical bills, kidnapped the family’s teenage son, kept him in chains and cut off one of his fingers, which was sent as a warning to hand over the outstanding money. He was then smuggled to the UK in the back of a lorry and forced to work in a cannabis farm. The report details how the child was so ill-fed he was forced to eat cannabis for food.
Held against their will, with little English and no legal status in the UK, these Vietnamese children feel they have no choice but to accept the exploitation, abuse and terrible living conditions in order to pay off their family’s debt.
Conditions, as criminal defence lawyer Philipa Southwell explains, are “very dangerous. The electricity’s been tapped, there are wires everywhere. The windows are always nailed shut so they can’t leave. There are filters over the windows so the light can’t come in.”
Unfortunately, as Sawti Pande of Child Trafficking Advice Centre (CTAC) explains, tackling this issue is “currently just not a priority.”
As such, the inhumane treatment of Vietnamese teenagers in the UK’s cannabis farms is not receiving the necessary attention from authorities, while most cannabis consumers remain blissfully unaware of the conditions in which their recreational drugs are produced.
The domination of the cannabis market by dangerous gangs is also another reason for the UK to begin moving in the direction of the Netherlands and much of the United States where cannabis can be bought and sold legally.
Not only would this generate an extra one billion pounds in tax revenue per year, but it would also ensure vulnerable individuals would no longer be exploited by drug gangs growing cannabis illegally.
