BCs Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons

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• BCs Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons
• Robin Pike
• Executive Director
• Alison Clancey
• BSW Practicum Student

Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor
General Ministry of Children and Family
Development
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Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP)

• Opened July 2007 in Victoria, BC
• Reports to Ministry of Public Safety and
  Solicitor General
• Joint funding from Ministry of Children and
  Family Development

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Role of OCTIP

• Coordination of BCs strategy to address human
  trafficking

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Role of OCTIP Collaboration

• Community Organizations
• Law Enforcement
• Municipal Government
• Provincial Ministries
• Federal Departments
• Academic Institutions

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What is Human Trafficking? Three Elements of
Trafficking
Adapted from the Freedom Network Training
Institute
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Definition of Exploitation

• Palermo Protocol
• 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
• the removal of organs

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Exploitation Expanded

• Illegal Adoption
• Forced Marriage
• Drug/Money Smuggling
• Child Soldiers
• Debt Bondage

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Smuggling or Trafficking?

• Smuggling Once at their destination, smuggled
  persons are free to do as they please.
• Trafficking Once at their destination,
  trafficked persons are exploited.

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Trafficked Persons

• Why People Are Vulnerable to Human Traffickers
• Poverty
• Immigration laws/policies
• -Demand for migrant work that immigration system
  cannot meet
• -Marriage as a way to obtain legal status
• -Dependence on third parties for information
  about migration
• Discrimination ethnic, religious, gender, age

Freedom Network Training Institute
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Who Are Traffickers?

• Neighbors, friends, village chiefs, returnees
• Labor subcontractors
• Agricultural operations
• Owners of small or medium-sized businesses
• Families (including diplomats and mom
  popbusinesses)
• Organized crime
• Females as well as males
• Freedom Network Training Institute

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Universal Declaration of Human Rights

• Article 1 of the Universal Declaration declares
• All human Beings are born free and equal in
  dignity and rights
• Article 4 clearly states that
• No one shall be held in slavery or servitude

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International Instruments

• The Palermo Protocol
• The Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish
  Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and
  Children, was adopted by the United Nations in
  Palermo, Italy in 2000, supplementing the
  Convention against Transnational Organized Crime

Canada ratified the Protocol in 2002
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UN Framework The 3 Ps

• Prevention of trafficking in persons
• Protection of victims of trafficking
• Prosecution of offenders

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Human Trafficking in BC

• 1999 Boats from China
• 600 people
• 134 children

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Ng Case

• 1st human trafficking case in Canada

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OCTIP Service Model a Human Rights Approach
Emergency Health and Dental
Housing and Shelter
Counseling and Support Services

Trafficked Person
Translation and Interpretation Services
Legal Consultation
May Require
Overall Services Coordination Office to Combat
Trafficking in Persons 250-953-4970
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• Prosecution 2 pieces of federal legislation
• 2002 Immigration and Refugee Protection
  Act
• 2005 Criminal Code Section 279.01-.04

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• Intergovernmental Working Group on Trafficking in
  Persons (IWGTIP)
• RCMP Human Trafficking National Coordination
  Centre

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• Temporary Resident Permit (TRP)
• In 2006, Citizenship and Immigration Canada
  introduced a new Temporary Resident Permit for
  potentially trafficked persons
• In 2007 the TRPs were amended from 120 days to
  180 days.

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TRPs in Canada since 2006

• 51 cases referred to CIC
• 17 TRPs have been issued in Canada
• No TRPs issued in BC to date

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2010 Olympics

• Calgary-based Future Group research into Hallmark
  Events
• Faster, Higher, Stronger Preventing
  Preventing Human Trafficking at the 2010
  Olympics
• Goal An exploitation-free Winter Games

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Where?

• Networks are in all major cities and small towns
  in BC and across Canada
• Geographic city triangles across provinces
  Saskatoon-Edmonton-Calgary Saskatoon-Regina-Winni
  peg Vancouver-Edmonton-Calgary
• Oil rigs and mining up in North.

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Trafficking Indicators

• In Canada
• no ID or other travel documents (confiscated?)
• movement restricted
• shows signs of being controlled or abused
• does not have control over their money
• owes money and is honour bound to pay it off

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Strategies of Traffickers

• Schools Traffickers entice girls, as young as
  grades four to seven, on school playgrounds or on
  the way to school by promising gifts, a good
  life, or getting them addicted to drugs.
• Boyfriends They pose as boyfriends and seduce
  girls by buying them expensive gifts and playing
  mind games (jewellery, tribal tattoos, expensive
  hoodies, cell phones etc).
• Girls as recruiters Girls are forced to recruit
  other girls-have to agree to do it due to fear,
  to meet survival needs. Recruiters take their
  share of earnings from girls they have
  recruited-move up in chain to get off the streets

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Strategies of Traffickers

• Internet Use the glamour and seduction of big
  city with lies of a good job
• Hitch Hiking poverty, lack of recreation/activiti
  es on reserves, poor public transportation force
  girls to hitch hike (Highway of Tears)

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• 500 Aboriginal women and girls have gone missing
  over the last 30 years.
• Amnesty International, 2004

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Implications for Social Work Practice

• Macrolevel Interventions (Policy making,
  advocating for legislative changes)
• Mezzolevel Interventions (Community awareness,
  education, training, research)
• Microlevel Interventions (Direct social work
  practice with trafficked persons and/or families
  to address their unique needs)

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Impacts of Trafficking

• Psychological trauma (PTSD and Complex PTSD) and
  other mental health issues
• Sex-related health problems
• Drug and alcohol addiction
• Feelings of low self-esteem, guilt, shame and
  lack of trust towards others
• Early deaths resulting from poor working
  conditions, exposure to violence or serious
  health problems.

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Needs of Trafficked Person

• Safety
• Housing
• Health
• Legal assistance
• Access to benefits
• Interpretation
• Freedom Network Training Institute

• Vocational
• Employment
• Information
• Transportation
• Adjustment of culture, society

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Thank you

• Contact Information
• BC Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons
• 250-953-4969
• email octip_at_gov.bc.ca
• www.pssg.gov.bc.ca/octip