Inside the brutal international trade in Vietnamese slaves

More than 1,700 Vietnamese adults and children have been trafficked into the UK since the 2019 lorry disaster in Essex, which killed 39 people.

Data analysis by The Times found a rise in the number of suspected victims, with more Vietnamese adults and children rescued from trafficking in nine months in 2021 than in the entirety of 2020.

In some of the cases examined by The Times, victims did not know where they were in the country — or even that they were in Britain — until they were rescued.

The discovery of 39 bodies in the back of a lorry in October 2019 came as a shock in Britain and Vietnam

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Using more than 30 testimonies from survivors and victims, documents from British and German courts, and interviews with law enforcement and anti-trafficking workers across Europe, The Times has pieced together the perilous routes and