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Victims of Trafficking in Persons: Perspectives from the Canadian Community Sector
3. Findings (cont’d)
3.1 Characteristics of Trafficking in Persons (cont’d)
3.1.4 The Needs of Victims
Interview respondents identified a variety of needs encountered by trafficking victims. It was pointed out however that the experiences of trafficking victims are highly varied and needs assessments must take into account each victim’s unique situation. Gender, age, immigration or Aboriginal status or health conditions are factors that have an impact on the needs of victims, as does the victim’s stage of exploitation or recovery.
- sympathetic police intervention in situations of confinement or severe controls;
- long-term outreach and street work with possible victims to provide them with information about their rights and possible sources of help;
- and education in communities where trafficking is most likely to be occurring.
Protection services were identified as a pressing need for victims once they have managed to exit a trafficking situation. Protection needs differ according to the trafficking situation. Those involved with organised crime networks, especially those who agree to testify against their traffickers, may need police protection or witness protection type of programs. Other women, such as those trafficked by small business men into the sex trade or for forced marriage, were said to be in need of the type of protection offered to victims of domestic violence. It was reported that small-scale trafficking involving personal emotional relations has many parallels with situations of domestic violence.
It was reported that victims exiting a trafficking situation were unlikely to have any funds or the personal resources needed to find housing on their own. For this reason, emergency shelter is an immediate need – for victims to leave, they need somewhere to go:
The most common problem is lack of shelter. They have no place to go. There really isn’t much for transition housing for these women... They should just take them as they are because they may have no place to go. If they’re homeless, they’re vulnerable.
For initial shelter arrangements, safety is again the primary concern, in that victims need to be protected not only from those who trafficked them, but also from other potential predators.
Though useful, shelters are only a temporary arrangement. In the longer term, and depending on the type of abuse suffered and related problems they may have, be it addictions or other health problems, victims may need assisted-living services in which social workers or other helping professionals continue to provide support.
Eventually, most women need to find independent housing. Frontline workers stressed affordable housing as a real need if trafficking victims are to become independent and less vulnerable to exploitation. Safety for women leaving shelters or assisted-living services to reintegrate into the general community is also crucial.
- health prevention programs; access to public health care;
- mental health care;
- and detoxification and addiction recovery services.
- sex-related,
- drug-related
- and mental illness.
They are really endangered, being infected or addicted and they need good advice and orientation about how they can take care of themselves, anything about health system.
The need for mental health services was stressed. Whether the person was vulnerable to trafficking because of a previous mental illness or whether the traumatic experience brought it out, the need is the same. The links between drug and alcohol abuse and trafficking have serious health implications. Trafficked persons with addictions may be at greater risk to blood-borne diseases. Frontline workers also indicated that all three of these particular categories of health problems increased the likelihood of experiencing other health concerns.
Workers involved with Aboriginal youth and women, especially those in Winnipeg, stressed the need for appropriate drug and alcohol addiction treatment as well as other forms of health care. The need for an Aboriginal Healing Centre was raised by Vancouver respondents.
It was noted that women trafficked for forced marriage often find themselves in a situation similar to those trafficked for other reasons; they have little or no control over their sexual activities and sexual exploitation.
Respondents at each of the sites argued for long-term counselling services for trafficking victims:
I think there should just be overall support. … And, of course, lots of counselling and support for these women. … There’s the first stage of support but you can’t really get into the counselling until they actually have their life stabilised. You can’t really counsel somebody who’s high on drugs, is homeless. A lot of these people don’t have a phone so they’ll come to me but they’ll have trouble, maybe, reaching me sometimes. They have trouble making appointments. You know, these kinds of things. Their life is too disorganised. They need stability. Everybody needs stability. How can you get better with anything when you don’t have stability?
Frontline workers felt that victims would benefit from support in making decisions about the next steps in their lives and in dealing with their traumatic experiences and feelings of low self-esteem. It was emphasized that counselling should be culturally appropriate. It should be provided in the victim’s language of origin and take into account his or her ethnic and cultural background.
The need for post-traumatic help was raised in Winnipeg and the reorientation of LCP workers in Montreal. There was consensus across the sites that victims also needed support in dealing with the aftermath of violence and sexual abuse, as well as help in recovering their children in cases where they have been taken by youth protection authorities.
As mentioned above, economic concerns are believed to be the key factor in an individual’s vulnerability to being trafficked. It is also reportedly one of the greatest factors enabling traffickers to maintain control over their victims. Frontline workers reported that a viable income was one of the greatest worries for people exiting situations of exploitation. The economic necessities pushing them into situations where there may be at risk of being trafficked often remain even after they have exited, in that they still have difficulties to provide for their own basic needs, to support their families at home, and to pay off debts to unscrupulous lenders.
Interview respondents in all cities mentioned that access to welfare was an immediate need for trafficking victims:
They really need a source of income. I see welfare as a guarantee of income. It is very necessary to make it possible for the women to succeed in their situation.
Personal income was of great importance. In cases where access to welfare is problematic, groups argued for the need of charitable or other government funds to cover the intermediary period.
They also agreed that employment, access to information, education and skill development were the long-term core needs for victims and the goal of nearly all those they encountered. Respondents noted that victims from abroad required information in their language of origin. They need to learn how to get help, to gain access to services, and to navigate the system, especially the immigration process. Language training is necessary if victims are to remain in Canada, become independent and improve their lives.
Acquiring immigration status is of primary concern for international trafficking victims. According to the participants, very few of the trafficking victims view returning to their country of origin as a viable option; be it due to fear of rejection by their community, fear of retaliation by their traffickers or for economic reasons.
Well, if they are trafficked, first of all they need to have their status. They need to stay where they’ve been trafficked because, once they go back to their country of origin, there is no way for them to be supported. It’s a given because these people come from third world countries. There are no such services.
Legislation was cited by several service providers as an important framework for their interventions. They pointed out the need for legislation outlining the protection to be provided to trafficking victims. In some cases, service providers found that despite the existence of anti-trafficking legislation, they still have problems defending victims’ rights:
Once we had a caregiver who was trafficked from Saudi Arabia, she was Filipino. We went to the police station to file a complaint. He said: I can’t put any crime in your complaint because my code says… there is no such thing as slavery.
When discussing victims’ various service-related needs, the need to address gender, race and ethnic inequalities was an underlying theme in all the respondents’ answers. They felt that structural discrimination and historical inequality has created an environment in which the exploitation of trafficking victims can still occur.
