Human trafficking reports on the rise

When anti-trafficking program started in 2018, it helped 61 people. The number doubled in 2022

Reports of human trafficking are on the rise in Waterloo Region, and the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region is warning that the crime remains a pressing issue in the region.

“Folks still tend to think that human trafficking is international: it’s not happening here, it’s not in my backyard. And it is. It’s happening to people here in Waterloo Region every day,” said Nicky Carswell. She is the co-ordinator of the Sexual Assault Support Centre of Waterloo Region’s anti-human trafficking program.

Carswell said locals may not fully understand what human trafficking looks like.

“It doesn’t look like the Liam Neeson movie, ‘Taken,’ ” she said. The movie follows a retired CIA agent who looks for his daughter after she is kidnapped by human traffickers on a trip to Paris.

Human trafficking happening here is often coercive and manipulative, forcing girls as young as 12 into providing sexual services.

The average age of entry into human trafficking nationally is 12 to 14 years old, said Carswell.

“It’s somebody targeting another person, gaining their love and trust, and then using that later on against them, to exploit them,” she said.

A lot of relationships that lead to human trafficking start online, said Carswell, where traffickers can have anonymous access to people.

This is especially a problem with youth, who tend to be more trusting online and share information about their dreams, wants and needs, support system and feelings of not belonging.

Carswell is especially concerned about reports that adults are giving drugs to local youth aged 10 to 14.

“We have adults in our community who are circling shelters, group homes, encampments, who are targeting youth in particular and offering them substance” — drugs like methamphetamine and fentanyl, said Carswell.

It’s not always clear why the adults are giving the kids drugs, she said. They could be just looking to have more people to use with, or grooming these youth so they can be exploited and forced to sell drugs or sex.

The trafficker can manipulate the victim by threatening them with violence, sharing intimate images, substance dependency, isolating them, or forcing them to do things to repay debts.

Trafficking always starts out with a relationship, romantic or platonic, which complicates things.

“People, just like in domestic violence, will step out of trafficking and step right back in. They miss their trafficker. They’re in love with their exploiter,” said Carswell.

When the Sexual Assault Support Centre started its anti-human trafficking program in 2018, it helped 61 people, mostly girls or young women. In 2022, it helped 125, more than double the number four years earlier. The anti-trafficking program has supported a total of 270 people since 2018.

In the past year, more community members have reached out to the centre concerned about young people, usually people aged 12 to 24 years old, Carswell said.

While some of the increase could be due to more people reporting to the centre, Carswell said she think internet plays a role.

Around half of the local victims of human trafficking are younger than 18, said Carswell.

Waterloo Regional Police laid 26 human trafficking charges in 2020, 76 charges in 2021, and 55 charges in 2022.

Sometimes, it can take years for the survivor to understand that they were trafficked, rather than being in a relationship that went south.

“I think we underestimate the level of trauma that people experience,” said Carswell.

“It is very hard moving forward and leaving something like that when you are traumatized.”

Many factors could deter a victim from leaving a trafficker, such as limited housing options and available provincial funding to cover living costs.

It can also be unrealistic to throw the victim back into regular life and expect them to easily reconnect with their peers, said Carswell.

“If they’re a young person, asking them to go back to school between the hours of 8 a.m. to 3 p.m. and connect with their 15-year-old peers is really unrealistic at that point. Because they’ve been up all night, they’ve been around adults and exposed to very adult things and behaviours,” said Carswell.

On Feb. 22, the centre will virtually screen a play called “Chelsea’s Story,” about a young girl who is targeted, groomed online and then trafficked.

There will be a question-andanswer period after the play, which has already been performed at The Registry Theatre, William G. Davis Public School in Cambridge, the Grand Valley Institution federal prison for women.

To sign up for the free viewing, go to eventbrite.ca and search “Chelsea’s Story.”