At first, Edward [not his real name] was lied to about what his son planned to do in Britain.
“I will work maybe in a restaurant because I can speak English,” he told his father, “and then we’ll see what can happen.”
It was a big decision. His son was quitting his university degree in Albania with just one year of his economics course remaining.
“My son never talked about such things. It was not his intention. But just one day suddenly he said that he wanted to go,” the father explained.
Having travelled to France the young man then revealed the truth; he was crossing the Channel on a small boat to work in an English cannabis farm.
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“It was too late when I found out and it was like an earthquake for me,” Edward said bowing his head, a tear running down his cheek.
“He told me he needs the job to make money,” Edward added. “He told me if you finish university here it’s not a big deal because you will only work as a waiter.
“In Albania if you want to find a [good] job, you will need connections or you need to put some money in to get the position. This is how things work because of our corrupted government.”
Knowing how difficult it could be didn’t make it any easier for him to handle his son’s choice, however.
“I’m scared every time I hear a story from London, my mind is all over the place,” he continued. “I’ve heard some stories from the village where I was born.
“Some of the people were working in this kind of [drug] farm and suddenly one night some people tried to get in. It was a disaster, they were killing them and doing bad things.
“I’ve also heard how when the police raid the houses, the workers have to get out and sometimes they sleep on the streets. That’s why I always told my son it’s not for him, but he keeps replying that I just need some time to make some money.”
Edward calls his son every day as the young man tends to a large crop of cannabis plants. But the conversations are never easy.
“He tells me he can’t speak a lot with me on the phone because he doesn’t want to be heard by the neighbours. He wants to be silent because of his work,” Edward said.
Like most of the cannabis farm workers, the young man arrived in the UK by boat. The trip put him in debt to the smugglers although his father said it had now been covered.
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Edward has heard even more troubling stories of workers landing themselves in debt to drug dealers to the tune of hundreds of thousands after cannabis harvests were ruined or robbed.
Although he is more confident relatives who helped his son find the work will protect him in the event a crop is ruined.
The father blames social media for fuelling his son’s sudden interest in this line of work.
The Express.co.uk has heard from multiple sources how in 2022 smugglers and drug dealers launched a big promotion across social media platforms which drove young people to try and get to the UK.
“I think he was influenced by social media or other people,” added Edward. “It’s the influence of his friends because they kept messaging him saying ‘come here, work with us and make money’.”
The concerned parent knows of at least three or four other families who have had boys under the age of 18 travel to work on cannabis farms.
He is fearful for them all as the truth, Edward believes, is far different to what is portrayed on social media.
“People I know mostly say that they [went there] and they didn’t succeed. But they lie sometimes and say they did,” he added.
Knowing his son is trapped in an illegal job in a far away land, Edward’s existence has become a living nightmare, he fears for his boy’s life every day.
He said: “I asked my son to just come home because maybe one day you will be killed by one of those terrible guys who breaks in.
“I just keep saying to him he should change his view of how to live life and work.”
Additional reporting by Eraldo Harlicaj
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