Saturday, June 28, 2008

Canada Failing to Nab Human Traffickers, U.S. Report Says



From the Epoch Times:

Despite new laws and programs, Canada is failing to catch those who are selling and enslaving other human beings, a U.S. report says.

Employing deception, threats, and abduction, human traffickers prey on the vulnerable, targeting mostly women and children—but increasingly men and boys—and subjecting them to labour exploitation, sexual exploitation or both.

The recently released U.S. State Department's 2008 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report calls human trafficking a "multi-dimensional threat" that increases global health risks and fuels the growth of organized crime.
In a section on each country's progress in curbing human trafficking, the report notes the strides Canada has made in combating the illegal practice, including an injection of $6 million in January to prevent the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children and its increased efforts to protect victims.

However, Canada has demonstrated "limited progress" in catching and convicting trafficking offenders.

"Enforcement and laws have been put in place but there still hasn't been a single person convicted of trafficking in this country," says Sabrina Sullivan, managing director of The Future Group, a Calgary-based anti-human trafficking organization.

The researchers urge Canada to intensify efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict trafficking offenders, including those suspected of trafficking for labour exploitation, and increase efforts to investigate and prosecute Canadians suspected of engaging in child sex tourism abroad.

It also recommends more brothel raids, improved law enforcement coordination and greater protection and services for foreign trafficking victims.

Sullivan says Canada needs to establish a central office to combat human trafficking similar to the one operating in the U.S., noting that America has many "best practices" in fighting human trafficking that Canada could emulate.

Canada is a source, transit and destination country for trafficked people. Women and children are trafficked primarily from Asia and Eastern Europe for sexual exploitation.

Read the full article

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