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Authors: Benjamin Perrin
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residence that from the outside looked like any other home. Inside, Latin American women, primarily from Brazil, were for sale. Carlos controlled Luisaâs movements, taking her to and from the brothel and his house each day.
At this point, Luisa no longer had her immigration papers and her student visa had expired, raising the likelihood of immigration detention if authorities found her. Moreover, as a Spanish speaker from Colombia, Luisa had difficulty communicating effectively with the Portuguese-speaking women from Brazil. The false hope that her children would be brought to Canada, along with the influence of the drugs, Carlosâs control of her movement, and the threat of immigration detention, kept Luisa firmly under his domination. In 2006, a police raid of the brothel ended Luisaâs exploitation, and she was able to find support from local NGOs.
Smuggling debt and young children
Migrant smuggling occurs when foreign nationals illegally enter a country for a fee paid to criminals who facilitate their entry. Such smugglers generally make a one-time profit from fees paid by smuggled individuals to cross an international border, whereas traffickers make ongoing profits from the sexual exploitation or forced labour of their victims. However, this distinction can become blurred, especially when young children are involved.
Traffickers have used migrant smuggling schemes as a powerful tool to recruit foreign nationals seeking a better life who will agree to be transported to a foreign destination but on arrival find themselves forced to repay massive smuggling debts as debt bonds. Such individuals may be willingly smuggled into Canada, only to find on arrival that they are sent to a sweatshop or brothel. This recruiting method, which makes possible a continuous stream of potential victims, is less risky than other means such as abduction, force, and threats of force.
The most alarming cases involve children who are smuggled into Canada and become victims of human trafficking. Trains, planes,and boats are used to this end. While few such reported cases have been uncovered here, these vulnerable foreign children are often unaccompanied by parents or relatives, owe thousands of dollars to smugglers who have transported them illegally, and have no source of income to repay the debts. Because of these factors, authorities have raised concerns that foreign children may be destined for brothels, sweatshops, or domestic servitude.
Although under-investigated in Canada, the problem has commanded major police resources in the United Kingdom, where law enforcement authorities launched âOperation Paladinâ in 2007 over concerns about the number of âunaccompanied minorsâ arriving at major airports from abroad. Found alone in the airports, the children were placed in the child protection system but often vanished. They were previously instructed to leave their child protection shelters soon after arriving and to make contact with individuals they had never met. Unbeknownst to the children, they were destined for exploitation.
Between 2008 and 2009, Operation Paladin resulted in the arrest of twelve individuals for child trafficking. Were these children isolated cases of human trafficking or part of a more systemic problem? And is Canada witnessing the same phenomenon? At this point, we have little evidence of the latter, but Canada has yet to conduct an investigation that matches Britainâs.
The British Columbia Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP) has expressed concern about potential trafficked children. Opened under the B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General in July 2007 with a mandate to develop and coordinate the provinceâs response to human trafficking (and the first provincial body of its kind in Canada), OCTIP works with provincial ministries, federal departments, municipal governments, law enforcement agencies, and community-based and Aboriginal
At this point, Luisa no longer had her immigration papers and her student visa had expired, raising the likelihood of immigration detention if authorities found her. Moreover, as a Spanish speaker from Colombia, Luisa had difficulty communicating effectively with the Portuguese-speaking women from Brazil. The false hope that her children would be brought to Canada, along with the influence of the drugs, Carlosâs control of her movement, and the threat of immigration detention, kept Luisa firmly under his domination. In 2006, a police raid of the brothel ended Luisaâs exploitation, and she was able to find support from local NGOs.
Smuggling debt and young children
Migrant smuggling occurs when foreign nationals illegally enter a country for a fee paid to criminals who facilitate their entry. Such smugglers generally make a one-time profit from fees paid by smuggled individuals to cross an international border, whereas traffickers make ongoing profits from the sexual exploitation or forced labour of their victims. However, this distinction can become blurred, especially when young children are involved.
Traffickers have used migrant smuggling schemes as a powerful tool to recruit foreign nationals seeking a better life who will agree to be transported to a foreign destination but on arrival find themselves forced to repay massive smuggling debts as debt bonds. Such individuals may be willingly smuggled into Canada, only to find on arrival that they are sent to a sweatshop or brothel. This recruiting method, which makes possible a continuous stream of potential victims, is less risky than other means such as abduction, force, and threats of force.
The most alarming cases involve children who are smuggled into Canada and become victims of human trafficking. Trains, planes,and boats are used to this end. While few such reported cases have been uncovered here, these vulnerable foreign children are often unaccompanied by parents or relatives, owe thousands of dollars to smugglers who have transported them illegally, and have no source of income to repay the debts. Because of these factors, authorities have raised concerns that foreign children may be destined for brothels, sweatshops, or domestic servitude.
Although under-investigated in Canada, the problem has commanded major police resources in the United Kingdom, where law enforcement authorities launched âOperation Paladinâ in 2007 over concerns about the number of âunaccompanied minorsâ arriving at major airports from abroad. Found alone in the airports, the children were placed in the child protection system but often vanished. They were previously instructed to leave their child protection shelters soon after arriving and to make contact with individuals they had never met. Unbeknownst to the children, they were destined for exploitation.
Between 2008 and 2009, Operation Paladin resulted in the arrest of twelve individuals for child trafficking. Were these children isolated cases of human trafficking or part of a more systemic problem? And is Canada witnessing the same phenomenon? At this point, we have little evidence of the latter, but Canada has yet to conduct an investigation that matches Britainâs.
The British Columbia Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons (OCTIP) has expressed concern about potential trafficked children. Opened under the B.C. Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General in July 2007 with a mandate to develop and coordinate the provinceâs response to human trafficking (and the first provincial body of its kind in Canada), OCTIP works with provincial ministries, federal departments, municipal governments, law enforcement agencies, and community-based and Aboriginal
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