In The Press

Public law director Ahmed Aydeed and caseworker Kate Macpherson are both featured in The Guardian’s long-read article ‘Enslaved on a British cannabis farm’ as part of the newspaper’s ‘Exploitation in focus’ series. The article tells the story of Duncan Lewis client Minh, a Vietnamese victim of trafficking who, after being enslaved on a cannabis farm in Chesterfield, was illegal detained in Morton Hall immigration detention centre where he was attacked and sexually assaulted. Kate details her first meeting with Minh and how it was apparent to her that he was in extreme distress, “He could barely communicate,” she recalls “…His mind was all over the place. He couldn’t make eye contact. He had completely withdrawn into himself.” Ahmed also discusses Morton Hall’s failure to investigate into the attack Minh experienced whilst in detention, “What they had on their hands was someone who had repeatedly disclosed that he had experienced rape, trauma, abduction, trafficking and torture,” he says “Their failure to take this assault seriously was at best incompetence and at worst an indication of the culture of disbelief and disregard for the detainees in their care.”