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The impact of migrant trafficking on Canada is estimated at between $120 million to $400
million per year and accounts for approximately 8,000 to 16,000 people arriving in Canada
per year illegally. ("Organized Crime Impact Study," Solicitor General of Canada)
Vietnamese and Chinese mafia are increasing operations in brothels in Toronto, Canada.
They traffic in women from Southeast Asia. Agents pay recruiters up to $8,000 for a
woman, who then sell the women to pimps for about $15,000. Agents take 10% of the
earnings beyond the original contract. The women are forced to service buyers’ 12 hours a
day, 400 buyers or $400,000 to pay off their debt. Women are abused and terrorized,
being beaten and reportedly burned with hot irons. (Rob Lamberti, "Sex Slaves: Fodder for
Flesh Factories the Women Earn Nothing But Tips Until They Pay Off Their $40,000
Contracts," Toronto Sun, 10 May 1998)
About twelve 16-30-year-old Asian girls and women were trafficked into Canada each week
on visitor's permits and sold into prostitution. The girls and women were bought in North
America for up to $15,000 by a network that made about U.S. $1. 4 - $2.2 million annually.
The women are sold to brothel owners in Markham and Scarborough Toronto and Los
Angeles and forced into $40,000 debt bondage. (Police, "Police Bust Sex-slave Ring" 11
September 1997 & "Toronto police uncover sex slave ring," United Press International, 11
September 1997)
1000 employment authorizations for foreign exotic dancers are issued every year.
("Canada’s Paper for EU Conference on Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation" 10-
11 June 1996)
Recruitment of exotic dancers into Canada is legal, and may be linked to the issues of
trafficking and sexual exploitation. Women who enter Canada to work as exotic dancers are
vulnerable to sexual and economic exploitation, deprivation of freedom, and can be
coerced into criminal activities, whether they have entered legally or illegally. ("Canada’s
Paper for EU Conference on Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation" 10-11 June
1996)
Male buyers in Canada are increasingly seeking Filipinas more so than Thai women,
because they believe Filipinas pose less of risk for AIDS. (Rob Lamberti, "Sex Slaves:
Fodder for Flesh Factories the Women Earn Nothing But TipsUntil They Pay Off Their
$40,000 Contracts," Toronto Sun, 10 May 1998)
Methods and Techniques of Traffickers
As many as 100 Honduran children have been smuggled overland into Canada from
Honduras, by a professional drug ring trafficking children to Vancouver. The Honduran
smugglers pay the childrens’ transportation costs and help them across the Canadian
border. Once in Vancouver, the traffickers put the children in apartments, help them file
refugee claims and sign up for welfare. In return, the children are turned out on the street
as indentured drug dealers. (Adrienne Turner, "Drug ring lures kids as dealers: Hondurans
as young as 11 deal crack in Vancouver," Ottawa Citizen, 20 July 1998)
Many of the young girls that are trafficked and forced into prostitution in Canada are ferried
from city to city, from Seattle to San Francisco to Oakland to Phoenix to Honolulu and
Portland. The pimps move them every 3-4 weeks. (Portland Police Officer Doug Kosloske,
The Province, 19 December 1997)
Motorcycle gangs and organized crime groups based in Eastern Europe and Asia, have
trafficked foreign women to Canada under lawful pretexts, then forced the women into
prostitution. ("Canada’s Paper for EU Conference on Trafficking in Women for Sexual
Exploitation" 10-11 June 1996)
There have been a number of cases identified wherein women from Asia have been
smuggled into the provinces of Quebec, Ontario and British Colombia for the purpose of
having women work as lounge dancers and strippers. ("Canada’s Paper for EU Conference
on Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation" 10-11 June 1996)
There have been reports of extortion, coercion, rape and prostitution involving foreign
exotic dancers, strip club managers and patrons. The women are vulnerable to sexual
exploitation and coercion into criminal activities. Foreign exotic dancers tend to be recruited
in their country of residence by "talent agencies". The talent agency pays all up-front costs
associated with travel and initial accommodations. The loan becomes a form of debt-
bondage. Many of these women do not speak French or English and are unfamiliar with the
legal protections available to them under Canadian law. ("Canada’s Paper for EU
Conference on Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation" 10-11 June 1996)
Strip clubs located in Toronto and Montreal are suspected of sexually exploiting young
Asian women from Thailand, Taiwan, the Philippines, Malaysia and other areas. The
women were hired as foreign exotic dancers, but were put into prostitution. The women
were coerced into having abortions when pregnant, with threats of being returned to their
country of origin if they refused. The women had their passports taken away, and were
held in seclusion when they were not performing. After an investigation, criminal charges
were laid against the women. None of their abusers were charged. ("Canada’s Paper for
EU Conference on Trafficking in Women for Sexual Exploitation" 10-11 June 1996)