Invisible Chains (33 page)

•  Investigate suspected cases of human trafficking within their jurisdiction, including online, and liaise with neighbouring police agencies.

•  Initiate sting operations to prosecute individuals attempting to purchase sex acts, using relevant legislation to seize vehicles used in the commission of the offence.

•  Recommend charges of human trafficking when reasonable grounds exist to believe the offence has been committed, and assist with actions to seize the proceeds of the crime and charge associates of the trafficker.

•  Reach out to at-risk individuals and potential victims through youth intervention programs, school liaison initiatives, and protocols like those used by the Boston and Dallas police forces, as discussed in
Chapter 16
.

•  Ensure that officers who respond to prostitution-related complaints or reports of domestic disturbances document and investigate possible indicators of human trafficking.

An action plan for businesses

Sweden's experience has proven that law enforcement agencies alone cannot eradicate exploitation. Since social, cultural, economic, and often racial factors play a part, involving a wide cross-section of society in the battle against human trafficking can reduce its incidence and impact. So what about private enterprise? Human traffickers use hotels, taxicab companies, airlines, websites, weekly magazines, and so on to facilitate their crimes—frequently without the knowledge of these companies.

Almost fifteen thousand companies worldwide have signed the
Athens Principles to End Human Trafficking Now,
a global initiative
launched by Egypt's first lady, Suzanne Mubarak. The goal is to acquire millions of signatories by enlisting the companies supplying the offenders to ensure they play no part in human trafficking. The Athens Principles commit companies to the following:

1  explicitly demonstrate the position of zero tolerance toward trafficking in human beings, especially women and children, for sexual exploitation

2  contribute to prevention of trafficking in human beings, including awareness-raising campaigns and education

3  develop a corporate strategy for an anti-trafficking policy that will permeate all corporate activities

4  ensure that personnel fully comply with the anti-trafficking policy

5  encourage business partners, including suppliers, to apply ethical principles against human trafficking

6  call on governments to initiate a process of revision of laws and regulations that are directly or indirectly related to enhancing anti-trafficking policies

7  report and share information on best practices

Sex traffickers use some specific businesses, including travel and tourism, to exploit their victims, and many such businesses have begun to take action. The Code of Conduct for the Protection of Children from Sexual Exploitation in Travel and Tourism (
www.thecode.org)
is an example of a sector-specific initiative to combat sex trafficking of children. Tourism service companies that adopt the code agree to

1  establish an ethical policy regarding sexual exploitation of children

2  train the personnel in the country of origin and travel destinations

3  introduce a clause in contracts with suppliers, stating a common repudiation of commercial sexual exploitation of children

4  provide information to travellers by means of catalogues, brochures, in-flight films, ticket slips, homepages, etc.

5  provide information to local “key persons” at the destinations

6  report annually to the Code of Conduct Secretariat

As of November 2009, a total of 947 companies in 37 countries around the world had signed the Code of Conduct. Unfortunately, among Canadian firms, only the Association of Canadian Travel Agencies and Incursions Voyages (Quebec City) have signed on so far.

All companies should have explicit corporate policies that prohibit employees from purchasing sex acts while travelling on company business or when using corporate assets. The policy should be clear that disciplinary action, up to and including dismissal, is the consequence. Companies that are even more proactive have partnered with NGOs to offer training and jobs to survivors of human trafficking.

An action plan for parents

Criminal networks in Canada frequently recruit underage girls for sex trafficking, in some cases making initial contact through social networking websites. “Kids in the Know,” an online resource guide from the Canadian Centre for Child Protection (
www.kidsintheknow.ca
), offers age-appropriate information and strategies to help protect children from sexual abuse and exploitation. It provides parents with ideas on how to talk with their children about sexuality, dating, and the internet.

Understanding the difference between a loving relationship and a controlling one is among the most difficult and important challenges for young people who are starting to date—often years before their parents may know about their activities. As we've seen, domestic sex traffickers routinely seek to convince their victims that they are in boyfriend–girlfriend relationships, while the attention is merely part of the psychological manipulation or grooming process.

We learned in
Chapter 15
that the Canadian Centre for Child Protection has developed an entire curriculum for school-aged
children and made it available to school boards. If your child's school has not included education on preventing child sexual abuse and exploitation in the curriculum, you or your parents' advisory council could insist that it take this important step.

Internet safety for kids

Few parents would let their children go out alone late at night in the worst part of town, yet children with unrestricted access to the internet are at comparable risk. Cybertip.ca recently listed the following top five risks to Canadian children on the internet as a result of actions by sex offenders:

1  targeting online games with chat rooms

2  hijacking instant messaging (IM) accounts and coercing children to send nude or partially clothed images of themselves, a practice that has doubled in recent years

3  using 3-D animated characters (avatars) to engage youth in online conversations

4  invading social networking sites where children and youth are encouraged to create online diaries and connect with new people

5  encouraging youth to send nude images to peers without understanding the images could be forwarded or permanently posted online

In response to these risks, the Family Online Safety Institute (
www fosi.org
) has developed the “Family Online Internet Safety Contract,” which sets out expectations and commitments from both parents and children to ensure a safe online experience.

Parents should discuss safety tips with their children and warn them about the risks of life online. The following tips for Canadian children and youth come from the “Kids in the Know” campaign:

•  Keep your personal information to yourself and off the internet.

•  Check with your parents before sending any photographs online.

•  Obtain your parents' approval before meeting someone in person whom you met on the internet. Remember to meet in a public place and bring a trusted adult with you.

•  Inform your parents before entering a chat room. Remember that people on the internet are not always who they say they are.

•  Trust your instincts. If something does not seem right or makes you uncomfortable, speak to a trusted adult.

•  Talk with your parents about what you are doing online and who you are speaking with.

Community responses save lives

Identifying and assisting victims of human trafficking takes a community response from NGOs, faith-based organizations, and average Canadians. In January 2010, four Filipina women were rescued in Vancouver with the help of members of a Roman Catholic Church, a local NGO, the police, and the B.C. Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP). Their exploitation could very well have continued, however, had it not been for an average Canadian who first identified the case.

In 2009, the four women had entered Canada legally in response to a promise of work from a businessman in Calgary. Once in the city, however, they were confined to a hotel owned by their “employer,” and their passports were seized. He demanded that the women work up to sixteen hours a day—and for little pay—as cleaners and in the hotel gift shop. Heavily supervised, they were unable to interact with outsiders during work hours and then were transported to a second location at night. They were directed to clean their employer's home and provide manicures, pedicures, and massages to the employer and his family. Any complaints about their treatment produced threats.

In late 2009, the four women were transported to a hotel in Vancouver, also owned by their employer, where they performed the same services under the same conditions, except that they were permitted to attend church on Sundays. Fortunately, a member of the
church congregation who recognized the signs of human trafficking befriended the Filipina visitors. The Filipinas confided enough in this woman to set off warning bells, and she put them in touch with a member of the church who was part of a committee to stop human trafficking.

The church contacted Robin Pike, executive director of OCTIP, who acted promptly. Within twenty-four hours, the Filipinas were in a specialized NGO shelter and had access to a lawyer. CIC swiftly issued temporary residence permits for the women, who qualified as forced labour trafficking victims with access to the Interim Federal Health Program. Meanwhile, the hotel owner fled Canada with the women's passports.

This case, in which community members collaborated in treating the women as victims, not criminals, should serve as a model for future initiatives. The road to freedom for these Filipinas started with an average Canadian who knew enough about human trafficking to glimpse the invisible chains that bound these women, even as they knelt in church asking God to help them.

An action plan for you

If you've read this far, you know the horror and extent of human trafficking, and the trauma and damage it inflicts on children and adults all over the globe and right here in Canada. Now you can set this book aside– or you can do something about it.

Here are the top ten initiatives you can take to fight human trafficking:

1  
Tell someone
.

Share what you've learned in this book with a family member, friend, or colleague.

2  
Help the heroes
.

Support organizations that help survivors by volunteering your time, language abilities, or professional skills. Donate money,
clothes, or equipment to them, and perhaps plan a fundraising event to help one of the organizations listed in the Appendix.

3  
Raise awareness
.

Host an awareness event with your friends, work associates, church group, or service club to tell them about human trafficking and commit to doing something to address the problem.

4  
Call for change
.

Email, call, or write a letter to your municipal, provincial/ territorial, and federal politicians asking what they're doing to address the problem of human trafficking, and ask them to implement the recommendations for government shown above—they're supposed to be working for you, after all.

5  
Take a stand
.

Become an advocate for at least one recommendation in this book that you personally want to see adopted. The will to end exploitation must be marshalled for laws, policies, and programs to be reformed as part of the solution.

6  
Let your dollar talk
.

Buy fair trade products where possible and, if you can't be sure, avoid products whose makers are notorious for using forced labour, as shown below:

    
Global blacklist of forced labour trafficking products

A 2009 report by the U.S. Department of Labor identified 122 common goods from 58 countries that ranked among the worst for forced labour or child labour. The most problematic were cocoa, cotton, and rubber. Here are ten products made by forced labour trafficking victims (for a weblink to the complete list, see the Notes at the end of this book):

Brazil nuts from Bolivia

Christmas decorations from China

Coffee from Côte d'Ivoire

Diamonds from Sierra Leone

Garments from Malaysia

Gold from Burkina Faso

Cocoa from Nigeria

Rice from India

Shrimp from Thailand

Sugarcane from the Dominican Republic

7  
Speak up.

Raise the issue of human trafficking in letters to the editor, at political debates, in the classroom, and at town hall meetings.

8  
Be a woman against human trafficking.

Talk to your husband, boyfriend, partner, or male friends and family members about the realities of women and girls exploited in the sex industry.

9  
Be a man against human trafficking.

Don't pay for sex or go to places where commercial sex acts take place, either in Canada or when travelling abroad, and discourage your friends from doing so if you're invited to go along to such places. Explain your concerns.

10  
Report it
.

Be aware of the warning signs of human trafficking in your community, at work, and when travelling. Report suspicious activity to your local police or Crime Stoppers by calling 1-800- 222-TIPS (8477). You can also report online child sexual abuse imagery, child sex tourism, child trafficking, and child luring to the Canadian Centre for Child Protection at
www.cybertip.ca
. Don't just stand idle when you suspect that someone may
be a victim of exploitation. Call the police immediately. If you wait, it may be too late. We know that traffickers move victims frequently to avoid detection—help the police get one step ahead of the offenders.

Restoring Canada's promise

Deep in our history of struggle for freedom Canada was the North Star.