Sep. 07, 2010 - Issue #777: The Sex Issue 2010
Sexual slavery
Human trafficking a multi-billion-dollar industry
Despite Canada's abolition of slavery in 1834, sex slaves still exist around the country today. In fact, through human trafficking, slavery exists worldwide.
Human trafficking is the buying and selling of persons for profit. It is a worldwide multi-billion-dollar black-market industry. Traffickers recruit victims through controlling relationships, abduction and false promises of legitimate jobs. Victims are controlled by use of force, threats, manipulation and domination. They are exploited through physical abuse, sexual abuse, forced prostitution, labour and black-market organ removal.
"It is very difficult to assess the real size of human trafficking because the crime takes place underground, and is often not identified or misidentified," Alexia Taveau, associate crime prevention expert for the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Anti- Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling Team, explains. "However, a conservative estimate of the crime puts the number of victims at any one time at 2.5 million. We also know that it affects every region of the world and generates tens of billions of dollars in profits for criminals each year."
Not all trafficking is executed by huge organized-crime groups. RCMP Sergeant Tim Taniguchi says that victims may be recruited, transported and held by smaller criminal groups, such as family operations and even independent individuals.
According to Sgt Taniguchi, victims of human trafficking can be recognized by signs of physical abuse or neglect, depression or fear. They may not speak English or French and instead have someone who speaks for them. Despite living somewhere for a moderate length of time, they may not be familiar with their surroundings, or they may frequently have to move.
It isn't always easy to identify the victims of trafficking, even for the victims themselves. "Victims often do not identify themselves as victims," Taveau says. "Even if they have the chance to enter in contact with local authorities, fear of being considered as criminals, or fear of retaliation against their families prevent them from finding a way out of their situation."
In 2002, human trafficking was criminalized under Canada's Immigration and Refugee Protection Act, making it easier for RCMP to battle the problem. Previously, laying criminal charges for human trafficking was very difficult for law enforcement. "We would have to look at specific sections of the criminal code, such as kidnapping, uttering threats, extortion, prostitution, specific criminal charges of that nature," Sgt Taniguchi says.
Western Canada's first human-trafficking charges were laid last September, following an investigation into an alleged West Edmonton bawdy house. Detectives said that while the Sachi Professional Massage parlour closed daily at 11 pm, three women were forced to stay around the clock answering the phone and making appointments. Their captors warned the women that if they left, their families would be informed of the prostitution.
Those three women are hardly alone. In 2005, RCMP estimated that each year 600 women and children are trafficked in Canada for sexual exploitation, and the issue grows larger all the time. According to Sgt Taniguchi, victims of trafficking can be found in bars, night clubs, massage parlours and escort companies.
Several films have been devoted specifically to the sexual side of human trafficking, both documentary and fictional. The Emmy-award-winning CBC documentary Sex Slaves features interviews with not only victims of trafficking, but also a convicted trafficker.
The 2002 fictional film Lilya 4-ever follows 16-year-old Lilya from her home in Estonia to her forced prostitution in Sweden. She suffers from what Taveau describes as the "lover-boy method" of trafficking, which involves a young man tricking a young woman into falling in love with him, allowing him to more easily manipulate her into a trafficking scenario.
Human trafficking doesn't happen exclusively between countries, as in Lilya 4-ever, but also within the same country. There was controversy this year over alleged human trafficking during the 2010 Olympics. It is believed that Canadian prostitutes were being forced by pimps to relocate to Vancouver for the servicing of tourists. In response, the Salvation Army opened a Vancouver safe house and launched The Truth Isn't Sexy, an anti-human trafficking campaign.
According to Taveau, people can help combat human trafficking by participating in local anti-trafficking campaigns, being informed, raising awareness on the issue, buying fair-trade products and informing themselves of different companies' business practices. Perhaps most importantly, they should seek support for anyone they suspect may be a victim of trafficking. The fight against human trafficking should concern everyone because it affects everyone.
"I think the whole community suffers," Sgt Taniguchi says. V
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