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A victim of modern slavery who made a life in Scotland and devoted himself to charity is facing deportation tomorrow.

Duc Nguyen said he is “heartbroken” and “terrified” he will be killed in his native Vietnam after he was forcibly removed from Glasgow last Monday.

The Home Office accepted that Duc was a victim of trafficking last August after he served six months in prison for being forced to work on a cannabis farm in England.

He was released on bail in January last year and relocated to Cumbernauld, Lanarkshire, where he threw himself into volunteering to pay back the community he grew to love.

But after the Home Office refused his appeal for asylum, he was taken first to Dungavel House Immigration Removal Centre in Lanarkshire and is now in Colnbrook detention centre, in Harmondsworth, awaiting deportation tomorrow.

(Image: Internet Unknown)

Speaking from the centre, he begged the people of Scotland to get behind a campaign for him to stay.

He said: “The people of Scotland have been so good to me. I hope they will help me, I am so worried and I am heartbroken. Scotland is my home, I just want to say, please don’t let them deport me.”

Duc, 44, was trafficked to England where he was held captive as a human slave, working 15 hours a day for no pay in a cannabis farm.

When he realised it was illegal, he was too scared to try to escape because the windows had electric locks which shocked him when he tried to open them.

He said: “There was nothing I could do, they were gangsters and part of an underground group.

“I had to wake up after midnight to turn on and off the lights and to water the cannabis. I often had to stay up overnight. I was trapped in a farm in a room with hardly any oxygen.”

After eight months, the farm was raided and Duc was actually relieved to be jailed in Wandsworth Prison in London.

He said: “I had more freedom there.”

(Image: Handout)

He was moved to Cumbernauld in January 2017 and has volunteered for a number of charities, including Lambhill Stables in North Glasgow which is designed to help people locked in deprivation.

Duc worked throughout the week at the charity – fixing bikes which could be donated to the local community, tending the gardens and supporting youngsters.

He said: “Ever since I came to Scotland, the people have been so kind and I spend all the time I can, putting back into the community to pay back that kindness.

“I love the country and I love the people who have become my friends.”

Like most trafficking victims, Duc has built up a huge debt with the gangsters in Vietnam who exploited him, which they refuse to reduce regardless of the amount he worked.

Gangsters threaten trafficking victims and their families with violence and death if they escape their clutches.

Aileen Macdonald-Haak, social inclusion officer with the Lambshill Stables, wept today as she urged the Home Office not to go through with the deportation.

She said: “Duc was not a criminal, he was a trafficking victim and it is inhumane to deport him.

“We have all grown to love him and he does so much for the community, he works for so hard trying to pay back any kindness shown to him.

“A couple of women in their eighties visited him in Dungavel.

“He is loved by everyone, from children to the elderly.

“He is a quiet unassuming man and so generous with his time. He has so many friends.

“One of the women here even makes Vietnamese food for him, which we all share.

“We are devastated at the thought of him being thrown out of the country.”

(Image: Tony Nicoletti/Daily Record)

The Leader of The Scottish Green Party, Patrick Harvie said Duc was being persecuted by the Conservative Government’s hostile immigration policy.

This latest case follows on from the Windrush scandal that saw British citizens wrongly deported to the Caribbean.

Anti-slavery charity Hope for Justice, said the number of victims the organisation was seeing being threatened with deportation was increasing with the policy.

Mr Harvie said the government’s treatment of Duc was “disgusting” and would discourage vulnerable victims of trafficking from seeking help from the authorities.

He said: “This is dangerous for Duc as an individual and it says so much about a reckless and inhumane immigration and asylum policy.

"The Home Office seems to regard its job as a human stock taking exercise. It doesn’t see the need for a policy that is driven by compassion and keeping people safe.

"Duc is a victim of a crime. It is disgusting they would remove someone like that without regard for his own safety.

"If people think the moment they come to the attention of the authorities, their own lives and security will be put at risk, they won’t seek help from health services and police. This policy costs lives.”

A Home Office spokesman said: “We do not routinely comment on individual cases.”

To sign the petition to stop Duc’s deportation go to https://www.change.org/p/caroline-nokes-stop-the-deportation-of-trafficking-victim-d