CHILD TRAFFICKING – THE HUMAN TRAFICKERS’ MAFIA
Ruthless human traffickers smuggle Vietnamese minors via Russia, Poland and Lithuania to Great Britain. An investigation in which high-ranking investigators, witnesses, victims and perpetrators tell their tale.
Crammed into vans and refrigerated trucks, on the road for months, sometimes held in abandoned warehouses or apartments. Beaten, raped, exploited, constantly in fear of their life. Lured by promises of a better future, many children and young adults are smuggled out of Vietnam into western Europe, via Russia, Lithuania and Poland. Berlin is a key hub for human trafficking from Vietnam. The road to questionable happiness costs between 15 and 20 thousand dollars. Victims have to pay off their debts by working in nail salons, as cigarette sellers, drug runners or as gardeners in illegal cannabis plantations. The traffickers decide when the debts are paid off. Their victims are at their mercy for years. It is a highly lucrative business. In this investigative road movie, we follow the trail of the Vietnamese mafia across several European countries to Great Britain, and we ask why these crimes are possible in the first place and how they continue to go almost unnoticed. Our protagonists are high-ranking investigators, witnesses, victims and perpetrators.