Human Trafficking Event Report

“Most of us used to think that slavery was a thing that happened in Africa and the Carribean, a thing of the past.” said Barbara Sykes of Women in Black ,”but today human trafficking is the third largest trans national crime in the world after arms and drugs, and the fastest growing.”
These words opened an evening devoted to ending human trafficking co-sponsored by Women in Black and the Social Justice Committee of the Unitarian Church of Edmonton. The May 16th event took place at the church and was attended by a crowd of over 80.
Today human trafficking is a multi-billion dollar industry that spans the globe. 80% of trafficking victims are women, 50% Are children. Modern day slaves are used in farms and factories, as domestics, as child soldiers and of course in the sex trade and pornography industries. For example the vast majority of cacao, the key ingredient in chocolate are produced by child in Africa.
Part of the evening was devoted to the screening a portion of the film Sex Slave$ which detailed the slave trade running out of Odessa in the Ukraine. The film showed the stories of poor women who had been offered jobs as domestics or shop keepers outside the country and who wound up being sold into the sex trade for a few hundred dollars. Most are initially enticed and sold by people they know.
Said Tania, one of the freed victims, “Don’t these pimps have any children? Don’t they have a heart and a soul? I have never seen real evil until this.” She had been enticed as she tried to find work to pay for her brother’s medical treatment, for they lived in the Chernobyl area. Other victims spoke of having to service up to 25 men a day.
The filmmakers followed a trafficker named Pasha, a middle aged woman who ran a legitimate business bringing domestics to Turkey, but who used that as a front to sell some of the girls into Turkish brothels. Bought for a few hundred dollars in the Ukraine, she would sell them for thousands. The women were then sequestered, abused psychologically and sexually until they became compliant or were killed.
Tania is now pulling her life together thanks to funds raised by viewers of the film. It is one of the few happy stories.
Said Barbara Sykes, “These victims are invisible. They have no voice. There is a senseless disregard for human dignity.”
Andrea Burkhart leader of Action Coalition on Human Trafficking (ACT) a local coalition of government, NGOs, victims and concerned citizens was the guest speaker for the evening.
“The women that you saw in the film (as the filmmakers followed Pasha) were sold, drugged, caged and raped. There is little hope for them.”
“We have to say that this exists, because it is kept in the shadows and we are all in denial. It is modern day slavery. Human traffickers take advantage of human vulnerabilities and the desire for a better life.” Andrea quoted a friend as saying, “If you have the ability to dream, you have the potential to be trafficked.”
Andrea noted that it happens right here in Canada, for this land is often a transit point and a destination. We are also a source country as young women are enticed into modelling careers that are fronts from sexual slavery.
She also noted the case last fall when Edmonton Police Service laid charges of human trafficking and rescued three sexual slaves from a west end massage parlour. But there is lots still to do...there have only been five successful prosecutions for trafficking, although 30 more are before the courts. But said Burkhart, there are so many traffickers never get prosecuted.
Burkhart also noted that 72,000 foreign workers have come to work in Alberta in the last few years. Many go through a legitimate hiring and working process, but there are some who are forced (illegally) to pay a multi-thousand dollar recruitment fee, are forced to work in jobs different from what they were promised and are exploited in various ways.
We can shine a light on these terrors.

She noted 12 things we can do, these will be posted seperately along with the ACT contact information.

Check out ACT's website at http://www.actalberta.org/

All comments are welcome, but especially from event attendees.