Mai came to a city in Ontario to work as a caregiver for a family from her country of origin. She thought she was coming to Canada under the Caregiver program but when she arrived at the home, her employers took her passport and told her that she did not have the proper papers for being in Canada but that they would take care of the problem. They also told her that she would be paid at the end of two years. Mai worked seven days a week (usually from 5:00 am to 11:00 pm) and slept on the kitchen floor. At the end of the two years she did not receive any payment. When she complained to the family they ignored her, except to say that if she tried to call the police (difficult given her lack of English), she would be arrested because she didn’t have the proper documentation (they did not do the immigration paperwork as they had promised). Many weeks later, with the help of an acquaintance, Mai made it to a refugee centre to ask for help.
What is human trafficking?
Trafficking in persons occurs when someone gains a profit from the exploitation of another person through means of coercion, deception or fraud. This exploitation can take many different forms such as sexual exploitation (in sex trade, one partner exploiting another), labour exploitation in the service industry (restaurants, hotels), agriculture (fields, greenhouses), domestic work (baby sitters, nannies, personal care workers, housekeepers) as well as construction and manufacturing. Forced marriage can lead to both sexual and labour exploitation and, at times, reaches the level of human trafficking. In some countries, people are trafficked for their organs.
As a society, we contribute to many of the underlying causes of human trafficking
People become vulnerable to being trafficked through social and economic exclusion. Many people experience exclusion due to such barriers as poverty, gender bias, racism, lack of education and lack of opportunity; others become excluded as a result of mental illness, addiction, family disconnection or social isolation.
First Nations women and girls can be particularly vulnerable to being trafficked for sexual exploitation because they often experience multiple barriers intersecting in their lives. Human trafficking exposes our failures as a society and challenges us to address these underlying patterns of exclusion.
Highly selective immigration policies force migrants into dangerous means of migration
Canada’s immigration policies give clear priority to those who are highly educated and highly skilled, or have money to invest. Such increasingly restrictive immigration rules are detrimental to people who are forced to migrate due to violations of their economic, social and cultural rights -- violations that are often so severe that they threaten survival. When denied regularized routes of migration, people in such situations are forced to take routes that are far more precarious. Some rely on smugglers to get them across borders, and too often these arrangements devolve into situations of abuse, human trafficking or death. Others migrate through temporary work programs and find that they are vulnerable to workplace exploitation that, at times, reaches the level of human trafficking.
February 8, 2015
As we join with others in prayer on February 8, 2015, to mark the Catholic Church’s first International Day of Prayer and Awareness of Human Trafficking, let us also bring an awareness of our collective complicity in these tragic stories so that we might be moved to action. The date for the initiative is the feast of St. Josephine Bakhita, considered a patron saint for trafficking victims. Born in 1868 in Darfur, Sudan, she was kidnapped at the age of nine and sold into slavery, first in her country and later in Italy. She died in 1947 and was declared a saint by Pope St. John Paul II in 2000. Here is her story.
Sue Wilson CSJ