Trafficking of Human Persons: A Modern Slavery

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Trafficking of Human PersonsA Modern Slavery
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Prayer R God hears the cry of the poor.
Blessed be our God. I will bless Gods name at
all times. Gods praise ever in my mouth. Let
my soul glory in our God, for God hears the cry
of the poor Every spirit crushed God will
save will be ransom for their lives will be
safe shelter for their fears, for God hears the
cry of the poor
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Prayer for an End to Trafficking O God, our
words cannot express what our minds can hardly
comprehend and our hearts feel, when we hear of
women and girls deceived and transported to
unknown places, for purposes of sexual
exploitation and abuse, because of human greed
and profit, at this time in our world. Our
hearts are saddened and our spirits angry, that
their dignity and rights are being transgressed
through threats, deception and force. We cry out
against the degrading practice of trafficking and
pray for it to end. Strengthen the
fragile-spirited and broken-hearted. Make real
your promises to fill these our sisters with a
love that is tender and good and send the
exploiters away empty-handed. Give us the wisdom
and courage to stand in solidarity with them that
together we will find ways to the freedom that is
Your gift to all of us.
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Human Trafficking What Is It?

• Victims of trafficking are exploited for
  commercial sex or labor purposes.
• Traffickers use force, fraud or coercion to
  achieve exploitation.
• Human trafficking is a form of modern-day
  slavery.
• After drug dealing, human trafficking is tied
  with the illegal arms trade as the second largest
  criminal industry in the world, and it is the
  fastest growing.

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Human Trafficking Who Are Victims?

• Approximately 800,000 to 900,000 victims annually
  are trafficked across international borders.
• Case figures indicate that between 1,500 and
  2,200 people are trafficked from Canada into the
  U.S. annually, though the RCMP stresses the
  numbers may be only a fraction of the actual
  total.
• Victims have come from, among other places,
  Africa, Asia, India, Latin America, Eastern
  Europe, and the Ukraine

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Physical and Psychological health risks for women
who are trafficked
Food and sleep deprivation Repeated
rape Emotional manipulation, including threats
and blackmail Physical beatings, bruises and
broken bones Absence of gynecological care or HIV
testing Forced or unsafe abortions Depression,
Post Traumatic Stress Disorder, suicidal
tendencies
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• A victim of trafficking may look like many of the
  people you help every day. You can help
  trafficking victims get the assistance they need
  by looking beneath the surface for the following
  clues
• Evidence of being controlled
• Evidence of an inability to move or leave job
• Bruises or other signs of battering
• Fear or depression
• Non-English speaking
• Recently brought to this country from Eastern
  Europe, Ukraine, Asia, Latin America,
  Africa and the Philippines.
• Lack of passport, immigration or identification
  documentation

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• Traffickers use various techniques to keep
  victims enslaved. Some traffickers keep their
  victims under lock and key. However, the more
  frequent practice is to use less obvious
  techniques including
• Debt bondage / financial obligations - victims
  are honor-bound to satisfy debt
• Isolation from the public limiting contact
  with outsiders and making sure that any contact
  is monitored or superficial in nature
• Isolation from family members and members of
  their ethnic and religious community
• Confiscation of passports, visas and/or
  identification documents
• Use or threat of violence toward victims and/or
  families of victims
• The threat of shaming victims by exposing
  circumstances to family
• Telling victims they will be imprisoned or
  deported for immigration violations if they
  contact authorities

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Myths Associated with Human Trafficking

• Myth 1
• All Prostitutes Are Willing Participants

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Myths Associated with Human Trafficking

• Myth 2
• All Immigrants Smuggled
• into the United States
• or Canada
• enter willingly

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Myths Associated with Human Trafficking

• Myth 3
• All Participants Involved in Human Trafficking
  Are Criminals

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• Mature beyond her years, Helena works as a
  cocktail waitress to support her pride and joy
  three-year-old Ivanka. At the bar she meets
  Frederick, a handsome stranger who says he wants
  to whisk her away to Vienna. Secretly, however,
  hes plotting to sexually exploit the young mom.

http//www.lifetimetv.com/movies/originals/humantr
afficking.html
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• When a friend offered Namwaan a well-paying job
  as a
• housekeeper, she left her family and traveled
  with six
• other women across country borders into a foreign
  land.
• After arriving in a new city, Namwaan was taken
  to a
• brothel and locked in a guarded room. She was
  made to
• work as a prostitute, even when she was ill.
  Though she
• tried to convince other girls trapped there to
  escape with
• her, they were too afraid they knew that
  runaways were
• brutally abused if caught. Namwaan was eventually
  
• rescued, thanks to evidence presented by the
  International
• Justice Mission (IJM). She was taken to an
  aftercare facility,
• where she received a vocational education and
  began the
• healing process. She has since returned home and
  embarked upon a new life of freedom.

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• Grace Coleman sent domestic servant Jane M. from
  Ghana to the United States to be a nanny for the
  Blackwells, Coleman's daughter's family. Jane was
  able to get a visa because Coleman, a member of
  parliament in Ghana, gave a personal guarantee of
  Jane's prompt return. Upon her arrival in the
  U.S., Jane's passport was confiscated. She was
  forced to serve the Blackwells by cooking and
  cleaning for them as well as care for their
  children and sometimes their friends kids.
  Jane worked every day, from 7 a.m. until 1230
  a.m., for almost no compensation. She stayed
  because of constant threats, including harm to
  her own children back in Ghana. Two women helped
  Jane flee in 2001. Coleman and her daughter were
  indicted on seven criminal counts.

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• To escape her violent brother, 14-year-old Manna
  ran away from home. At a train station, a young
  woman noticed Manna crying and offered to help,
  promising her a job selling fabric. The woman
  took the teen somewhere to sleep, but when Manna
  awoke, another woman warned that her life was no
  longer her own. She would not sell fabric but
  would have to sell her body instead. Manna
  refused her first customers, but one of the
  brothel keepers beat her till she submitted. The
  nightmare continued for two years, until IJM
  worked with local authorities to rescue Manna
  from a sound-proof dungeon. She now lives in an
  aftercare home and is studying to become a social
  worker. In 2004, her brothel keepers were
  sentenced to five years in prison.

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The UN Protocol to Prevent, Suppress, and Punish
Trafficking in Persons (2000) specifically calls
upon nations to address protection of the human
rights of victims and to provide measures for the
physical, psychological, and social recovery of
victims of trafficking. It is important to
protect the privacy and identity of individuals
freed from traffickers especially during and
following prosecution of their traffickers.
Victims also require appropriate housing,
counseling, medical and material assistance, and
employment training and opportunities to
facilitate transition and reintegration.
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• On January 10, 2006, U.S. President Bush signed
  Trafficking Victims Protection Reauthorization
  Act (TVPRA 2005) into law.
• The bill I sign today will help us to
  continue to investigate and prosecute traffickers
  and provide new grants to state and local law
  enforcement. Yet, we cannot put the criminals out
  of business until we also confront the problem of
  demand. Those who pay for the chance to sexually
  abuse children and teenage girls must be held to
  account. So we'll investigate and prosecute the
  customers, the unscrupulous adults who prey on
  the young and the innocent.
• We also have a duty to reach out to victims of
  trafficking, some of whom were smuggled into this
  country as children. The legislation I sign today
  will help us provide important new services to
  these victims, including appointing a guardian
  for young victims and providing access to
  residential treatment facilities to help victims
  get a chance at a better life.

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Press Release
On Nov. 25, 2005 the Government of Canada passed
bill C-49 which amends the criminal code to add
three new criminal charges for people involved in
trafficking of persons. Unfortunately, we do not
have any provisions for protection of the victims
at this point.
This action is a direct result of pressure on the
government to act on the UN protocol. Keep up the
pressure to get protection for the victims.
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Canadian Government Honors UN Protocol
On May 11, 2006 the Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration prepared legislation to allow victims
of trafficking a temporary resident permit (TRP)
for 120 days. A TRP will allow these victims to
have access to the medical care that they so
desperately need. The document does not say how
these victims will be cared for nor any mention
of funding to assist in these measure
In total, trafficking in people within Canada
represents a market of 120 million to 400
million, affecting 8,000 to 16,000 illegal
immigrants annually.
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The Future Group

• The Future Group has made recommendations on
  how Canada can get back on track
• Creation of a Canadian Counter-Human Trafficking
  (CCHT) Office
• Establish a 100 Million endowment to fight human
  trafficking
• Annual reporting to Parliament on progress
  towards confronting human trafficking
• Enforcing Canadas human trafficking and
  extra-territorial child sex tourism laws
• The Future Group is a leading Canadian
  non-partisan, non-governmental organization
  founded in 2000 that specializes in combating
  human trafficking and has worked with victims in
  Southeast Asia, West Africa and Latin America.

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• The Future Group applauds a landmark motion
  tabled on December 8th, 2006 in the House of
  Commons by Joy Smith, MP, calling on the federal
  government to adopt a comprehensive strategy to
  combat the trafficking of persons. Such a
  commitment is long overdue and urgently needed to
  head
• off the expected explosion of human trafficking
  in the lead up to the 2010 Vancouver Olympics.
• Build a World Without Slavery. End Human
  Trafficking.
•                                                 
                

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International Justice Mission

• International Justice Mission is a human rights
  organization that rescues victims of violence,
  sexual exploitation, slavery and oppression. A
  multi-national team of law enforcement
  professionals and a highly qualified legal staff
  conduct criminal investigations and collect
  evidence to rescue victims and bring perpetrators
  to justice.
• In 2002, International Justice Mission Canada was
  established to educate, empower and engage
  Canadians in the pursuit of justice for the
  oppressed. Jamie McIntosh  serves as IJM Canada's
  Executive Director.
• IJM Canada is registered with Canada Revenue
  Agency as a federally recognized charitable
  organization (registration number 86388 9283
  RR0001).

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Franciscans International

• Franciscans International advocates for the
  protection of the trafficked persons, their
  treatment as victims of criminal organised
  networks, and their legal, social and
  psychological assistance, regardless of their
  collaboration (or lack thereof) in the
  investigation process.

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Secular Franciscan Rule

• 15. Let them individually and collectively be in
  the forefront in promoting justice by the
  testimony of their human lives and their
  courageous initiatives. Especially in the field
  of public life, they should make definite choices
  in harmony with their faith.

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• Take Action
• Write letters to the Federal Minister of
  Citizenship and Immigration send a copy of your
  letter to your local member
• of parliament, the Member of the Opposition for
  Citizenship and Immigration and the prime
  minister.
• 2. Monitor the federal government's plan of
  action to address trafficking of women and
  children.
• 3. Monitor media reports regarding the federal
  government's efforts to stop trafficking.
• 4. Join a local taskforce and continue to work
  toward an end to human trafficking.

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Servant Anonymous
The SA Foundation is a Christian organization
whose purpose is to build a legacy of hope for
sexually exploited women and youth, with or
without children. It seeks to accomplish this
through1  Creating an awareness of sexual
exploitation and the SA program model2 
Training leaders who want to establish SA
organizations that are based on servant-hood and
personal recovery3  Providing SA organizations
with a complete non-profit model to establish
long-term recovery programs for women and youth,
with or without children, who desire to leave a
life of sexual exploitation and become productive
members of society4  Empowering friends of SA
locally, nationally and internationally to join
the fight against sexual exploitation and
trafficking 5  Forming a community of dedicated
servants to secure the unity of purpose of SA as
a whole, and to foster a spiritual core that
nourishes and strengthens the resolve of SA
organizations to continue their work
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WHAT CAN A FRIEND OF SA INTERNATIONAL DO ABOUT
SEXUAL EXPLOITATION? Active Participation1.
Educate protect your children. The driving
force behind the sex trade in North America is
sexual abuse during childhood that communicates
to these children that they have no value in life
and are only good for sex. The decision to sell
oneself for sex is not one easily made all of a
sudden. Rather it is this abuse that drives these
children (average age of entry into the sex trade
in Canada is 13 years old!) onto the streets. If
you want to prevent a new generation of victims
you must educate your boys and girls on how to
protect their bodies and how to respect others.
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2. Organize a dinner in support of the World
Services Division of the SA Foundation. Invite
your friends over for a special meal (choose
different themes/countries). When they ask what
they can bring tell them that you are providing
the entire meal and instead invite them to make a
donation to SAs work. You can also charge a
certain price per plate letting them know that
all funds raised go to support the SA
Foundations fight against the sex trade. 3.
Host a handicraft sale party. Contact SA to
receive an assortment of handicrafts made by
women who are in the SA program in Nepal. Then
invite your friends over and have fun selling
these products. Dont forget to tell them who
made the handicrafts and the purpose of this
business economic alternatives to sexual
slavery. (Please visit Serve Nepals website at
www.serve-nepal.org to view samples of
handicrafts available.)
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4. Organize an SA Fresh Start Fundraiser in your
city. SA Fresh Start fundraisers can be anything
from an easy to organize event like a Bowl-a-thon
to a buffet dinner with local musicians providing
entertainment! The possibilities are limitless!
All efforts support the World Services Division
of the SA Foundation and could be the connector
to bringing community awareness, and eventually
an SA organization, to your city! Contact SA to
see how you can get an SA Fresh Start Fundraiser
started in your city!
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Knights of Columbus Resolution April
2007 Whereas 800,000 900,000 women and
children are being trafficked every
year and forced into prostitution and
pornography, and Whereas Human
trafficking is tied with the illegal arms trade
as the second largest criminal industry in
the world, and it is the fastest growing,
and Whereas The Canadian government has
signed on to the United Nations Protocol
which states, The UN Protocol to Prevent,
Suppress, and Punish Trafficking in Persons
(2000) specifically calls upon nations to
address protection of the human rights of victims
and to provide measures for the physical,
psychological, and social recovery of
victims of trafficking. It is important to
protect the privacy and identity of
individuals freed from traffickers especially
during and following prosecution of their
traffickers. and
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Whereas The Knights of Columbus is a Catholic
fraternal organization that respects the
rights of individuals and is in solidarity with
the Church in her stand on human trafficking
as a modern form of slavery, The present
Conference reflects the growing international
consensus that the issue of human
trafficking must be addressed by
promoting effective juridical instruments to halt
this iniquitous trade, to punish those
who profit from it, and to assist the
reintegration of its victims. (quote taken from
Vatican document) Therefore, be it resolved
that The State Deputy, on behalf of the
Alberta/Northwest Territories jurisdiction write
a letter to the Minister of Citizenship and
Immigration to act swiftly in passing
legislation that will provide funding for
shelters where victims of trafficking can get
the help they And be it further
resolved that All members of the Alberta
Northwest Territories jurisdiction be encouraged
to take an active role in denouncing this
horrific injustice by contacting their MPs to
insist that our government remain true to their
commitment to the UN Protocol

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Nelson Mandela said, Vision without action is
just a dream action without vision is passing
the time vision with action can change the
world.
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The only way for evil to thrive is for good
people to do nothing Edmond Burke,
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www.franciscansinternational.org
www.ijm.ca
www.catwinternational.org
www.crc-canada.org
www.unanima.org
www.thefuturegroup.org
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Created by David Bouchard, sfo

• Canadian Religious Conference Fieldworker
• Justice, Peace and Integrity of Creation (JPIC)