Foodbank volunteer ‘trafficked into child slavery'
David Gibba in is a battle with Home Office
Friday, 22nd August — By Dan Carrier
David Gibba
A VOLUNTEER at Euston Foodbank has told how he was trafficked into London as a child and is now facing an uncertain future after becoming embroiled in a legal wrangle with the Home Office over his identity.
David Gibba said he became a victim of modern slavery after arriving in this country aged just 11 years old from Gambia in west Africa in 2015.
The 20-year-old said he was immediately forced to work by gang-masters who said he owed them after getting him to the UK.
Mr Gibba, who is currently living rough around Euston Station, said: “I came from a troubled family.
“I would run away a lot. I met an expat in Gambia, a man called Don.
“He gave me food and treated me like I was his child. I would run errands for him.
“Don arranged for me to travel to the UK with a friend of his.”
He recalled landing at night on a commercial flight with “fraudulent papers” and being taken to live with a mystery woman in Surrey.
He said: “To me, being a British citizen was a big deal.
“It offered me the chance of an education, work and a better quality of life. I was excited.”
He believed he would be adopted by a British family and given a passport, adding: “She fed me and I had a roof over my head.
“But now I am older I realise I was being used as her servant.”
He told how he escaped the house and went to live on the streets in Victoria, begging for food, and sleeping in the coach station.
It was there that he was targeted by a man who said he “was involved in drug dealing and money laundering”, adding:
“They would use children to carry huge amounts of cash about in backpacks, they knew police would not stop children like me.
“I stayed with him for three months and they used me to carry things around for them.
I wasn’t forced to do it and the man said I could leave any time, no problem – but what else was I going to do?”
He added: “One day, a courier came to where I was staying to deliver something and got really badly beaten.
They got an axe and held the person down, and said they would chop his hand off.
That really scared me. I thought, what if they send me somewhere and this happens to me?”
Mr Gibba said in 2018 he was contacted by a gang master who said he owed them the cost of his flight to London and had to work the debt off.
He was given the alias of Troy Rose and went to work at University College London, sometimes sleeping in the basement of the building.
In May 2023,
Mr Gibba was arrested by police officers who were told he had stolen a laptop.
It was an allegation he strenuously denied but he was held for 10 months on remand in Pentonville. During the prosecution of the case, questions emerged about his identity and age.
“The Gambian government sent the court proof of my age and identity – they sent the Home Office my passport,” he said.
“The court took my passport to a document fraud unit to check it out. They came back and said it was valid.
“My government confirmed who I said I was. But they had kept me inside for 10 months and then threw me out onto the streets.”
Since then he has been sleeping rough and trying to get his life back together – but has found gaining work or a roof over his head impossible as he claims his passport has yet to be returned by the Home Office.
Looking back, he said he believed he should have been placed in care by a local authority.
“I need my passport so I can start building my life,” he said.
“I need it to get a bank account, and I want to get a job, a home and an education.
“I want to go to college. I want to prove I have been a victim of modern slavery and that I deserve some protection under the law.”
Mr Gibba has applied to the High Court for a judicial review – a legal challenge – into his circumstances and the decision not to return his passport.
He said: “I did not give my consent to come to the UK – I was too young. Getting my passport back is the key to start building my life.”
The Home Office said they had a longstanding policy of not commenting on individual cases or any potential legal proceedings.
A UCL spokesman said they had no record of Mr Gibba and the people he claims he worked for were not employees of the university.
Mr Gibba believes he was employed to work at the university by a company called Compass.
A Compass spokesman said they had investigated Mr Gibba’s claims and they believed David, under the name of Troy, was employed by another agency.
A spokeswoman said: “We are concerned to hear about these historic claims as we take our responsibilities as an employer very seriously.
“We have looked into this and due to the amount of time passed, we have been unable to confirm the employment
information. A couple of the people named have left the business.
“However, a colleague who worked with us during this time period recalls an individual called Troy working on site, but he was employed via an agency.”
Mr Gibba said he felt like he was living in limbo in Camden, in a location that didn’t feel safe.
And said he could not hope to enrol at college until these issues are settled.
“I know the path I want to take,” he said. “But removing all the obstacles I face before I can start the journey is very hard.
“The sad thing is it doesn’t need to be. It feels like the government departments just aren’t able to listen.”
