JENNY was only 12 years old and still in Vietnam when her grandmother, who raised her, died of cancer. It was not her first experience of loss.
Every year on Jenny’s birthday, they would light incense and her grandma would tell her stories about her mother, who died in childbirth.
“My date of birth was impossible to forget,” says Jenny.
After her grandmother’s death, Jenny’s life became controlled by gangs. She was forced to sell lottery tickets to work off alleged debts. When she ran away, she ended up with yet another trafficker and faced brutal treatment alongside other children.
At 16 years old, she was put on a plane for Europe and, after trekking for days, forced on a small boat across the channel. Traffickers did not tell her where she was going.
“I hadn’t had enough food or water for a long time,” she remembers. “On the boat, I passed out.”
On the English south coast, she was processed by Home Office officials who, based on her “appearance and demeanour”, said she was six years older than she claimed to be.
“I was so tired, so exhausted that I didn’t understand what was happening,” says Jenny.
Eventually, she was taken to a hotel.
The next morning she says she was accosted by a man in the street who had a photo of her, taken by her traffickers back in Vietnam. He put her in a car, threatening her with a knife, and she was driven to Scotland. There she was forced to work in a house growing cannabis and told she would be killed if she did not obey.
Finally, she says, she was able to escape, running for hours until she encountered police.
Officers took a statement and called social workers. But when they realised her official UK date of birth, they told her she was an adult and hotel accommodation was arranged.
“I felt scared in the hotel so I didn’t really come out of my room,” she explains. “Staff would bring food to me but I didn’t want to eat it.”
She still has nightmares. Support workers report she cuddles a stuffed animal at night. She told them she wished she was with other young people, or a foster family.
Staff called the council to reassess her age. It took more than a month and the intervention of lawyers before two social workers arrived. After just one encounter, they also decided she was an adult.
But her lawyer, Farida Elfallah from Just Right Scotland, told The Ferret that she found Jenny’s testimony completely credible.
“She has always been consistent about who she is and what has happened to her,” said Elfallah. “Everyone who works with her, who knows her, believes her.”
The law firm challenged the council, which then carried out a full age assessment. Again, Jenny’s age was rejected. But an independent age assessment has since been commissioned by Elfallah, which found in Jenny’s favour. The lawyer is now looking to have the findings re-examined by the courts.
Meanwhile, Jenny still feels at risk. “I feel so stressed and cry all the time,” she says. “I just want them to accept my age and let me live as the person I am.”
