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March 20, 2009 | Page 6FFeatures Editor: Joe Rayment | E-mail: features@ubyssey.ca

He sometimes made hertake a dozen men in aday. This went on for 26

months; Nakpamgi earned morethan $350,000 off her. He wasthe rst person convicted of hu-man trafcking in Canada.

Not all human trafcking tsthe same archetype, nor doesit command the same mediacoverage. Christina Panis, a

board member of the Philip-pine Womens Centre, told

me about another trafckedwoman. (Panis couldnt use thewomans name for condential-ity reasons; for the purposes ofthis article well call her Maria.)Maria came to Vancouver underthe Live-in Caregiver Program,leaving three children behindin the Philippines. She hoped toattain permanent residency andearn a good wage so she couldsend money back to her family.Under the program, she was sup-posed to work 40 hours per weekproviding live-in elderly care.When Maria arrived, she wasalso forced to scrub the outsideof her employers house, cleanall the windows, tend to the gar-

den, clean her employers sis-ters house, and work overtimewithout pay. She could not takedays off and when she was sickher employer refused to let her

visit the doctor.Panis rst heard about the

case during a meeting at the Phil-ippine Womens Centre. Mariahad called the centre for assis-tance and a group of volunteers,including Panis, drove to a hugemansion near south Granville

to rescue her. A middle-agedChinese woman opened the doorand led the group downstairs tosee Maria. They passed a hugeswimming pool and an enter-tainment centre with a giant TVscreen. A look of immense reliefcrossed Marias face when therescue mission arrived.

It may not be as easy to garnermedia outrage for Marias story,

but Panis and many others wouldargue that this woman was a vic-tim of human trafcking.

As diverse as the two storiesare, both differ from the traf-cking cases typically depictedin North American media. Thestories usually revolve around

the sex trade. The victim is por-trayed as a vulnerable girl froma poor country who is kidnappedor lured away with enticing of-fers of work abroad only to ndherself forced into prostitutionin a developed country like theUnited States or England.

While such cases exist, hu-man trafcking is a diversecrime. Victims of trafcking forsexual exploitation may come

from Canada or they may comefrom other countries. Trafckedpersons might also turn up in in-dustries ranging from domesticwork to construction to farming.Christina Panis argues that sometrafcking victims even comelegally through immigrationprograms implemented by theCanadian government.

So, what exactly is humantrafcking? In 2000, theUnited Nations dened

trafcking in persons as fol-lows the recruitment, trans-portation, transfer, harbouringor receipt of persons, by meansof the threat or use of force or

other forms of coercionfor thepurpose of exploitation.The UN denition of human

trafcking is the product of along international debate. Thereare some very deliberate policydecisions that are reected inthe [internationally-accepted]human trafcking denition,said Benjamin Perrin, an as-sistant professor in the facultyof law at UBC who has advisedthe Canadian government on itspolicies to combat human traf-cking. The denition refers toforced labour. As a result, notall exploitative labour practicesinvolving movement of personsqualify as trafcking. Marias

case, for example, falls into agrey area.

Human trafcking is difcultto detect in Canada partly be-cause there is no typical case.Andreas Schloenhardt is work-ing on a research project on thetopic with Perrin. [T]he onething that weve really learned inour one year of research is thatthere are no two cases that arethe same, Schloenhardt said.

The stereotypical sex workerfrom overseas brought into thecountry scenario does not twith Canadian evidence; the rstset of convictions for humantrafcking in Canada have all in-

volved Canadian sex trafckingvictims.

Combined with this uncertain-ty is the fact that no one knowshow big the problem really is.There may be a handful of traf-cking cases in Canada or theremay be thousands. A few yearsago, the RCMP estimated thatthere are between 800 and 1200

victims of trafcking in Canada.However, they have since re-scinded that estimate because it

is difcult to accurately estimatethe size of the clandestine prob-lem. Some NGOs say there may

be as many as 15,000 victims inCanada.

In an attempt to compile therst detailed statistics about theissue in Canada, Perrin led afreedom of information requestwith Immigration Canada. Hefound that only 31 victims of hu-man trafcking have been iden-tied in Canada in the past two

years. Only one of these victimscame forward voluntarily. Due tothe secretive nature of the prob-lem and coercion victims face,this number is likely the tip ofthe iceberg.

In August 2008 the CriminalIntelligence Service of Canadaput out a report based on in-terviews with law enforcementon the issue. It found there areorganized criminal networksacross Canada involved in thetrafcking of Canadian womenand underage girls for sexual ex-ploitation within Canada and, insome cases, to the United States.

So we have to remember that

this is not simply a problem thataffects vulnerable individualsfrom abroad, Perrin said, butit also is a problem which hastargeted Canadian women andunderage girls in particular.

You can see the domestic sideof the issue in the transitionhouse of Vancouver Rape Reliefand Womens Shelter, whereAlice Lee, a collective memberof the group, has worked for thelast 14 years. In my work in thetransition house weve alwayshad women that have been traf-cked, especially women that aretrafcked within Canada fromrural places to urban centres,Lee said. Daisy Kler, another col-

lective member, explained thattrafcking of aboriginal womenand girls from poor reservesinto urban areas is of particularconcern.

There is also the problemof how to dene caseslike Marias. Panis ar-

gues that, based on the grass-roots research done by thePhilippine Womens Centre, weneed to expand how we look attrafcking. Our analysis is thatthe Live-in Caregiver Programis almost a form of trafcking

because we see that the Philip-pine government is pushing itscitizens out.

Canadian TrafcHuman tracking happens in Canada, toCanadians, and not always how you expect itby Alia Dharssi

Features Writer

I feel unworthy, dirty, tainted, likenothing. I feel I am only good forone thingsex. Tese were thedistressing words of an 18-year-oldCanadian, called Eve in an Ontariocourtroom. Imani Nakpamgi, a 25

year old from Niagara Falls, Ontario,forced Eve into the Canadian sexindustry when she was 15.

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But at the same time, on thereceiving end, Canada as a coun-try really lures women and otherworkers here, telling them thattheyll be able to work in theirprofession, theyll be able to workand live and be reunited with theirfamilies. But when they comehere, they learn that the Live-inCaregiver Program and [the con-ditions] theyre working under...is very, very different from whattheyve been told.

In the program, the womenmust have a specic employer toobtain the visa to come to Canada.Once they arrive in Canada, theyare to work 40 hours per week atminimum wage. In order to obtainpermanent-residence status, theymust provide 24 months of live-incare over a period of 36 months.But because live-in caregivers areobligated to live with their employ-er, the situation creates dynamicsthat can result in exploitation orforced labour.

Panis explained that, while em-ployed, live-in caregivers are notallowed to look for a second em-ployer, to upgrade their education(unless specically authorized), orto move out. Women are afraid tocomplain if they nd themselvesin bad working conditions, be-cause if theyre red theyll facedeportation if they cant nd anew live-in care job to fulll theterms of the program.

Citizenship and Immigra-tion Canada (CIC) and HumanResources and DevelopmentCanada (HRSDC) do make effortsto provide workers with informa-tion about their rights, as well ascommunity organizations that

may be able to assist them. Thisis how Maria was able to reachthe Philippine Womens Centrefor help.

CIC has also undertakenreviews in response to abusecomplaints related to the pro-gram. However, the impact ofthese reviews is unclear. When

I asked for a concrete exampleexplaining how CICs policieswere impacted by this reviewprocess, the spokesperson, Dani-elle Norris, simply repeated thatCIC consistently reviews all pro-grams and policies.

Panis explained that live-incaregivers, who are predominant-ly Filipino women, are placed in

vulnerable positions where theycan be coerced and exploited bytheir employer. They can becometrapped economicallyif theirfamilies rely on the incomeandemotionally.

Sometimes I think Ive heardreally, really awful stories andI hear something worse, Panistold me. In one case, for example,a woman Panis met through thewomens centre was forced tolive in a room that could only belocked from the outside. Her em-ployers kept the key and let herout, or kept her in, as they pleased.

It is impossible for someone

to say that all live-in caregiversare victimized. Thats clearly nottrue. But its also false to say thatnone of them are victims, becausesome of them are from the casesthat were having brought to ourattention, Perrin said.

Analee Lepp, the co-founderof the Canadian branch of theGlobal Alliance Against Trafc inWomen, explained that stories likeMarias need greater attention. Itseems to me that we have to doa lot more work in order to lookat labour migration much more

broadly and see how human traf-cking ts within that, within allthe labour sectors where peoplecould be potentially trafcked, not

just the sex industry.Erika del Carmen Fuchs, a

volunteer for Justicia for MigrantWorkers, was even more adamantthan Panis in her criticism of gov-ernment programs. We actuallypush the trafcking discourse,she said in reference to the Sea-sonal Agricultural Workers Pro-

gram (SAWP) whereby Mexicanand Caribbean agricultural work-ers come on temporary visas.

Del Carmen Fuchs told a storyabout workers under the pro-gram who had pesticide spilledon them. They were unable to getimmediate medical attention andeventually died. In another case,a Mexican worker was going to bedeported because he was unableto pay for the medical expenses re-lated to concussions and a strokecaused as a result of a head injuryon the job.

We say the program is traf-cking by the government,said del Carmen Fuchs. Beforecoming to Canada, the workersare shown videos that showgreat working conditions and

beautiful Canadian elds, delCarmen Fuchs said. When theyarrive in Canada, they often livein terrible conditions and ndtheir rights are negated. Whilegovernment stipulations make

guarantees of health insuranceand certain living standards, alack of oversight makes it pos-sible for employers to neglectthese standards.

If complaints are receivedfrom workers indicating thatemployers are not respectingthe terms and conditions of em-ployment within the SAWP, theyare referred to the appropriateprovincial ministry responsiblefor employment and labour stan-dards, an HRSDC spokespersonexplained.

The migrant workers oftenface a language barrier and fear

being deported if they complain.Del Carmen Fuchs feels that,

because of conditions in Mexicoand other Latin American coun-tries, the farmers have no othereconomically feasible optiononce they arrive in Canada.This, she argues, qualies thesituation as forced labour and,therefore, trafcking rather thansimply exploitation.

Currently, Canada has nonational plan to tackletrafficking. Moreover,

sentences dispensed to the few

that have been charged with hu-man trafcking have been light.Nakpamgi was sentenced to onlythree years in jail for exploitingEve. Once his 13-month pre-trialcustody credit is subtracted, hewill spend less time in jail thanhe spent enslaving Eve.

MP Joy Smith is trying to pushPrivate Members Bill C-268through parliament, whichwould create a minimum prisonsentence of ve years for anyonecharged of trafcking a minor.More than 3500 people have

joined a Facebook group thaturges Canadians to write to theirMP in support of the bill. Yet this

bill only tackles one aspect of a

multifaceted problem.For the time being, BC is

ahead of the rest of Canada. Theprovince established an Ofce toCombat Trafcking in Persons(OCTIP) and, to date, is the onlyprovince that has made such aneffort.

Corporal Normand Massie ofthe RCMP Border Integrity Pro-gram explained that talking tothe public and raising awarenessof the issue is also crucial. Expo-sure at the border is very quick.It is difcult to detect a humantrafcking victim, because a vic-tim coming into Canada doesnteven know that they are going to

be exploited yet. They have dif-ferent expectations. Its not untiltheyve gone [through] that portof entry that they nd out.

Our success is almost entirelyreliant on detection. Thats thepolice and everybody else. Thatsthe health care workers. Thats thelady next door who hears scream-ing and someone being assaultedon a regular basis. Thats how weneed to surface what could be hu-man trafcking.

The public, in a sense, be-comes the police. I dont knowwhats going on in the house nextdoor to where you live unless if

you tell me, Massie continued.In the interest of keeping our

communities safe, we need to be more willing to provide in-formation to the police. This isespecially important in light ofthe fact that there may be manymore people being trafckedfrom within Canada than comingacross our borders.

In 2005, Massie designed theRCMPs strategies to combat hu-man trafcking as the organiza-tions rst human trafckingcoordinator. He worked closelywith Robin Pike, who is the ex-ecutive director of the OCTIP.

Pike became involved in theissue personally in 1999 whenfour boats carrying about 590Chinese migrants arrived off thecoast of BC. The dilapidatedand unseaworthy boats werecarrying 134 children withoutparents or legal guardians. Thechildren, whose families in Chi-na were expecting them to earnmoney in Canada and the US tosend back home, were taken intogovernment care automatically.While their stories were similar,each had different needs, be theyrelated to language, healthcareor concerns about their families.

For me, working with all ofthose children and forming re-lationships with them was very

memorable, Pike explained.About 40 of the children stayedin touch with people from theteam with which Pike worked,even if many of them ran away.

The incident had a profoundimpact on how Pike handlescases. Setting a basis of trustwith the person being traf-cked is crucial, a philosophyhes tried to apply to OCTIPand RCMP strategies. We didnot have human trafckinglanguage at that point, Pikesaid of the situation. We werereacting in 1999, because noth-ing like that had ever happened

before. Now we need to beproactive.

In spite of these efforts, Leesaid that the government is sim-ply not providing enough sup-port to organizations that workwith trafcking victims such asthe Vancouver Rape Relief andWomens Shelter. In many waysgrass-roots organizations, whichcan gain the trust of trafckedpeople more easily than the gov-ernment, are in better positionsto provide assistance.

Both Eve and Maria made

brave choices when theyasked for help. Maria left

the family she was working forunsure of whether she would

be able to stay in Canada andsupport her family with much-needed income. Fortunately,with the support of the Philip-pine Womens Centre, Mariawas able to acquire a permit tostay in Canada. She sponsoredher family, who followed a few

years later, but when her mar-riage fell apart, she found itdifcult to reconnect with herchildren, whom she had notseen for many years.

Nakpamgi controlled Evethrough assault and coercivethreats, such as threatening tokidnap her brother. Eve nallywent to the police after beingheld at gunpoint by a client.

In her statement to the court,she said she suffers emotional,health and nancial problems

because of the enslavement.In spite of their hardships,Eve and Maria were probablyamong the lucky onestheymanaged to escape.U

In one case, a woman was forced to live in a room thatcould only be locked from the outside. Her employers keptthe key and let her out, or kept her in, as they pleased.

It is impossiblefor someone tosay that all live-

in caregivers arevictimized. Tatsclearly not true.But its also falseto say that none ofthem are victims.

Prof. Benjamin Perrin