Not in my backyard.
That's the surprised reaction many have when they learn there are people vulnerable to human trafficking in Prince George.
About a year ago, the Prince George & District Elizabeth Fry Society put in place a coordinator for victims of human trafficking to help organize the many services required to assist a victim.
The victim could need health services, shelter, food and housing, emotional support and trauma counseling, legal services, law enforcement, government agencies and even interpretation services.
According to the Ministry of Public Safety and Solicitor General's BC Office to Combat Trafficking in Persons, the definition of human trafficking is the recruiting, transporting, harbouring or receiving of a person for the purpose of exploiting them. Traffickers use threats, force, coercion, deception or other means to force a person to provide labour, sexual services and sometimes even their organs.
Programs have been in place to raise awareness of human trafficking in Prince George as early as 2006, said Bally Bassi, community, social and justice programs manager at E. Fry.
"It's been coming to the surface with increased education awareness around human trafficking internationally, nationally and locally," said Bassi.
In Prince George there are victims of sexual exploitation.
"They can be victims under the age of 18 and over the age of 18," said Carolyn Emon, human trafficking project coordinator at the local Elizabeth Fry Society. "They are not just people who have been trafficked within Prince George but people who have come from other communities as well. There's also labour exploitation that differs somewhat from what it is in Vancouver."
In Vancouver there are a number of people who have been identified as victims of labour exploitation and they have been trafficked across an international border. People who have been identified as trafficked in Prince George and other northern communities came into Canada on a temporary residency permit like a work or student visa and were trafficked after they arrived in Canada, explained Emon.
The numbers are vastly different between reported victims of human trafficking and those that go unreported. Those that are unreported are discovered through other circumstances like when a victim would access housing, food banks, counseling and health services to get help, but they won't formally report the crime to police. Some people are not even aware that what they have been through is considered a criminal offence.
"Some people have been put into a situation and don't know the difference," said Emon. "For some people it's something they've been conditioned to their whole life."
An example of grooming a victim might look something like the example given by Emon.
A 28-year-old man might approach a 14-year-old girl, giving her attention, compliments and gifts, and then would try to isolate her.
"Something like that is called boyfriending or love bombing," said Emon. A continuation of that exploitive relationship, for example, would see the man lace the girl's cigarettes with methamphetamine, getting her addicted to the drug and then after some times goes by tell her that she owes him $5,000 and to pay it back she needs to become a sex trade worker, said Emon.
"Those relationships are really hard to break," said Emon. It takes an average of six to eight times for am exploited person to break away from that kind of relationship permanently because the ties become so strong.
Through campaigns to raise public awareness many people have reached out to report incidents informally.
In July 2015, there was a human trafficking awareness month-long campaign and there were commercials broadcast on television and radio, as well as ads on buses and three one-day training seminars presented for people working in group homes, agency providers and the community at large, said Emon.
"We got quite a good response from that effort," she added.
Besides raising awareness, Emon's goal is service integration.
"We know for a fact that there's no one agency that can support a victim of human trafficking,"said Emon. "We know that it's a collaborative effort. So part of my role is whenever there is somebody that is a potential victim or is a victim of trafficking agencies will send me their information and I help disburse that information to the agencies that will be key in supporting that individual."
For more information visit www.pgefry.bc.ca or call Emon at 250-563-1113.
