Prime Minister David Cameron pushed to step up trade with Vietnam on Wednesday to capitalise on “enormous” opportunities for British firms in an economy Britain would support with £500 million (S$1 billion) in infrastructure loans.
Advertisement
Making his fourth stop on his sweep through Southeast Asia, Cameron met Vietnamese counterpart Nguyen Tan Dung in Hanoi and oversaw agreements between companies of both countries in infrastructure, engineering, insurance and energy.
Experts say hundreds of Vietnamese minors are trafficked into the UK each year often to work in cannabis factories.
British businesses will be forced to prove they are doing everything they can to eradicate slave labour and human trafficking in their supply chains, Prime Minister David Cameron has said.
The plan, which will apply to more than 12,000 firms with a turnover of £36 million or more from October, will expose companies which do not thoroughly check on their suppliers.
Various other measures in the act come into force this week, including trafficking reparation orders, which encourage courts to use seized assets to compensate victims, and prevention orders, which ensure those who pose a risk of committing slavery offences can not get work in relevant fields.
Extra assistance on offer will include funding for an additional shelter for survivors of trafficking, particularly women or children, help to prevent people falling into the grips of people smugglers in the first place and an information campaign in provinces of Vietnam where it is a particular concern.
“The scourge of modern slavery has no place in today’s society and I am proud of all that Britain is doing to wipe it out”, said Cameron.
Mr Cameron said those responsible would face “tougher sanctions”. But there is still much more to do.
An estimated 3,000 Vietnamese children, many from Vietnam’s poorest rural areas, have been trafficked into Britain by criminal gangs, according to the United Kingdom’s counter human trafficking bureau.
Vietnam has long been the source of criminal gangs which ruthlessly export child labour to Britain.
Speaking at the meeting with Vietnamese President Truong Tan Sang, Cameron said the planned Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the European Union (EU) and Vietnam has a crucial role in consolidating trade and economic relations between Vietnam and Britain, reported Vietnam’s state-run news agency VNA.
Advertisement
Cameron said Kevin Hyland, the anti-slavery commissioner, would be leading a fact-finding mission to Vietnam this autumn to begin talks on enhanced cooperation between the two countries to tackle slavery.
