HUMAN TRAFFICKING

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Human trafficking is an injustice that touches the four corners of the globe including Canada. Canada, as a British colony, abolished slavery over 200 years ago in 1807 along with the rest of the British Empire, yet today millions of people are bought and sold into the modern global slave trade. Humans are the second most trafficked "product" in the black market, surpassed only by drugs.

According to the United Nations human trafficking is:

'The recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.'

Trafficking invariably involves forcible movement of a person from one place to another and forcible utilization of their services with the intention of inducting them into trade for commercial gains. The word 'forcible' signifies that the action is against the person's will or that consensus has been obtained by making deceptive claims and false allurements. In some cases, consensus is obtained because of the victim's social conditioning, where the victim is not even aware that s/he is being exploited. (www.ungift.org)

Who is being trafficked?

Everyone.Regardless of gender, age, race and religion, all people are susceptible to being bought and sold as a 'product' in the trade of human beings
People are bought and sold for many industries including brick making, soldiers (child soldiers), domestic help, textiles, begging and the sex trade (prostitution).

HUMAN TRAFFICKING AND CHILD SOLDIERS

In approximately 17 countries around the world, children are direct participants in war. Denied a childhood and often subjected to horrific violence, many thousands of children are serving as soldiers for both rebel groups and government forces in current armed conflicts. Children are physically vulnerable and easily intimidated, they typically make obedient soldiers. Many are abducted or recruited by force, and often compelled to follow orders under threat of death. Others join armed groups out of desperation. As society breaks down during conflicts, it leaves children no access to school, driving them from their homes, or separating them from family members, many children perceive armed groups as their best chance for survival. Others seek escape from poverty or join military forces to avenge family members who have been killed.

Both girls and boys are used as child soldiers in conflicts around the world. Girls are mainly used as 'wives' for military commanders and are raped and sexually exploited because of it. Others are used as cooks, porters messengers or spies. Some children are even used to carry out suicide missions against their own family or village. The UN protocol for the rights of children prohibits any type of forced labor including labour in armed conflicts. (www.hrw.org & www.unhchr.ch/html/menu2/6/protocolchild.htm)

HUMAN TRAFFICKING FOR THE SEX TRADE

Women and children are especially vulnerable to traffickers. Some are abducted and sold, some are deceived into consenting by the promise of a better life or a better job, and some feel that entrusting themselves to traffickers is the only economically viable option. Once trapped, they are held and exploited in slavery-like conditions. Regardless of the route of entry, most women and children trafficked for sexual exploitation suffer extreme violations of their human rights, including the right to liberty, the right to dignity and security of person, the right not to be held in slavery or involuntary servitude, the right to be free from cruel and inhumane treatment, the right to be free from violence, and the right to health. All which are intrinsic rights under the UN International Declaration of Human Rights and in Canada under the Charter of Rights and Freedoms.

In 2006, the US State Department reported that one million children are exploited in the global sex trade. Sex tourists, seeking anonymity and impunity in foreign lands, exploit many of these children in child sex tourism.

Children being trafficked for the sex trade are typically sold to traffickers when they persuade parents that their children will have a better life elsewhere: a secure job and the chance of a better education and future when in fact, they are often selling them to filthy brothels. Some of these parents or girls may even know, or suspect, that they will be sex workers, but desperate poverty and lack of both education and awareness can lead to their willingness to accept any offer - no matter the risk to the children.

Children forced into the sex trade are at considerable risk of contracting sexually transmitted diseases, including HIV/AIDS. For girls, there is the added risk of very early pregnancy and permanent damage to their reproductive health. Some trafficked children are also subdued and controlled with drugs to which they become easily addicted. They are then effectively trapped within the cycle of exploitation, because continuing with the work is seen as the only way to obtain their supplies.

HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CANADA

According to the RCMP, 800 to 1200 people are trafficked in and through Canada every year, however some activists would peg the number as high as 15,000. 2200 men, women, and children, are trafficked into America from Canada every year. Canada is considered a source, transit, and destination country for men, women, and children trafficked for the purposes of prostitution and forced labor. Women and children are trafficked primarily from Asia and Eastern Europe for sexual exploitation, but victims from Africa, Latin America, and the Caribbean also have been identified in Canada. Asian victims tend to be trafficked more frequently to Vancouver and Western Canada, while Eastern European and Latin American victims are trafficked more often to Toronto and Eastern Canada. A large number of victims are trafficked through Canada to the United States.

Non Governmental Organizations (NGOs) report that Canada is also a destination country, particularly for sex tourists from the United States. Canadian girls and women, who are mainly aboriginal, are trafficked within Canada for commercial sexual exploitation. Many of these young girls go to the big cities of Toronto, Vancouver, and Montreal with hopes of a good job but instead are lured by a boyfriend into the sex trade as a means of support.

The impact of trafficking on Canada is estimated at between $120 million to $400 million per year and accounts for approximately 8,000 to 16,000 people arriving in Canada per year illegally. ("Organized Crime Impact Study," Solicitor General of Canada) In Canada a girl can be sold for $15,000 and earn her owner over $40,000 a year.

NGOs also report that Canada is a destination country for foreign victims trafficked for labor exploitation; many of these victims enter Canada legally but then are unlawfully exploited in agriculture and domestic servitude.

In 2002 section 118 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act (IRPA) was enacted which recognized the trafficking of persons which states that no person shall knowingly organize the coming into Canada of one or more persons by means of abduction, fraud, deception or use or threat of force or coercion. Since this law was enacted there have been 25 convictions. (http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0624-e.htm)

In 2004 the Government passed Bill C-49, which officially recognized human trafficking as a crime within Canada. Bill C-49 gave police the ability to lay charges against anyone who recruits, transports, transfers, receives, holds, conceals or harbours a person, or a person who exercises control or influence over the movements over another person, for the purposes of exploiting them or facilitating their exploitation. Someone who commits this crime is guilty of an indictable offence and is liable to imprisonment for up to 14 years, or life in prison if the accused kidnaps, commits an aggravated assault or sexual assault against, or causes death to the victim during the commission of a trafficking offence.

CASES OF HUMAN TRAFFICKING IN CANADA

Although human trafficking officially became a crime in Canada in 2004, the first case of a person charged with human trafficking was not until May 2008. Imani Nakpangi was the first person in Canada to be charged with human trafficking, he had trafficked a 15 year old girl and forced her into prostitution. He made 360,000 dollars over three years through selling her for sex multiple times a day. He was sentenced in late May/early June 2008, with a sentence of 3 years minus time already served - he will be up for parole in less than a year. Michael Lennox Mark pleaded guilty last year to trafficking a 17 year old girl and was sentenced to two years, but because of the time he had already served he was only in jail for a week. Jacques Leonard-St. Vil was sentenced to 3 years for trafficking a 20 year old, but served nothing because of time already served.

LINKS TO MORE INFORMATION ON HUMAN TRAFFICKING:

http://www.canadafightshumantrafficking.com
http://www.humantrafficking.ca
http://www.joysmith.ca
http://www.uri.edu/artsci/wms/hughes/canada.html
http://www.rcmp-grc.gc.ca/imm_pass/q_a_human_e.html
http://dsp-psd.pwgsc.gc.ca/Collection/PS64-1-2004E.pdf
http://www.parl.gc.ca/information/library/PRBpubs/prb0624-e.html
www.salvationist.ca/trafficking
http://www.salvationist.ca/pdf/humantrafficking/SexualTraffickingFactSheet.pdf
http://www.exoduscrycanada.blogspot.com/
http://www.notforsalecampaign.org
http://www.slaverymap.ca
http://www.hopeforthesold.com
http://www.justmomentsphotography.com
http://www.stopsexwithkids.ca
http://www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf

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If you or someone you know is a truck driver, they can help fight human trafficking! visit truckersagainsttrafficking.com for more info.

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