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Major new study finds human traffickers recruiting young, vulnerable women

Cathy Dobson A woman who became a victim of human trafficking wants Sarnians to know it happens here and how to help prevent it.
Mixed race teenage girl covering her face in school hallway

Cathy Dobson

A woman who became a victim of human trafficking wants Sarnians to know it happens here and how to help prevent it.

“People are definitely taken aback when they hear my story, said Alicia, 31, who was 20-years-old when her life spiralled into drugs and trafficking.

“If you were to meet me, I’m a well put-together, attractive woman. I don’t look like someone who was involved in a very dark world.

“I didn’t know that lifestyle exists in Sarnia. I didn’t even party in high school,” she said. “But when I came home after college I met a fellow who was older than me and had that appealing bad-boy persona. I met the wrong people at the wrong time.”

The man introduced her to his friends and to cocaine.

“I had no self-esteem. My parents had divorced and I found that traumatic. I responded to anyone who gave me the time of day,” she told The Journal. “He said I was special. I thought I had a boyfriend.”

Soon he was giving her expensive gifts and drugs to deal to support her habit. When he delivered other women to johns, Alicia became the driver.

“By then, I felt there was no way out. It made me feel needed.  I trusted him. I felt I’d do anything for him.”

Then one day came a customer who wanted her to turn a trick.

“The man I thought was my boyfriend became my trafficker.  Behind closed doors he threatened to harm my family,” said Alicia.

“I was very confused and very dependent on drugs. I just did what I thought I had to do in order to keep my family safe.”

Alicia’s story isn’t unique, said Ruth Geurts, the lead researcher in a groundbreaking new study into human trafficking in Sarnia.

Ruth Geurts

She and six others worked two years and interviewed 70 community workers to determine how human trafficking happens here and how to help survivors.

“(Among others), we talked to people at the school boards, addiction workers, the CAS, all three Indigenous groups, Lambton College and the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Centre,” said Geurts.

“Seventy-five per cent said they were working with victims who they believed were involved in sexual human trafficking,” she said.

“It’s a very difficult thing to quantify. Most people being trafficked believe they are in a romance and don’t realize what’s happening until later.”

One Lambton OPP member said human trafficking is “like chasing a ghost. It’s such a hidden crime,” said Geurts.

Human trafficking is different from the sex trade because the sex trade is voluntary, she stressed.

The research team interviewed or surveyed 300 individuals in Sarnia, including 12 survivors.

“Human trafficking does not discriminate,” said Geurts.  "Anyone can be at risk and end up a victim.”

From 2017 to 2019 the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Centre Sarnia-Lambton assisted 35 women who were trafficked.

“Most victims are young, predominantly female and have had some kind of trauma in their past,” Geurts said.

“These men find young, vulnerable girls looking for a friend and they lure them very early. They offer to take them to a party, drug them, rape them and videotape it, then threaten to put it on Facebook.

“In order to stop that from happening they are forced to perform tricks, usually at hotels in other communities.” Very few call police.

Alicia said she was one of the lucky ones.

After a year of being trafficked “something clicked” when her so-called boyfriend abused her dog.

“I realized how toxic it all was and I called my mom. My family had done everything they could think of to help and never gave up on me.  She picked me up right away.”

Despite issuing threats, her trafficker didn’t follow her. He was never charged.

Alicia said she was able to overcome her addiction without the help of a rehabilitation centre.

“There was a fire in me and I did my best to recover from drug addiction. My family supported me. I was very, very lucky.”

Several months ago, Alicia left Sarnia and moved out west to “get a fresh start.”

She is now single, drug-free, and working as an office manager at a drug and alcohol rehab centre.

The study was conducted through a partnership of Lambton College and the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Centre Sarnia Lambton.

It concluded Sarnians need to be more aware of human trafficking; that it should be part of the school curriculum; that the community needs a safe house; as well as additional detox and rehab facilities.

A Co-ordinated Response to Assess Human Trafficking in Terms of the Problem, Prevention and Empowerment can be found at http://www.sexualassaultsarnia.ca/uploads/anti-human-trafficking-final-report.pdf

It was funded by $200,000 from the National Sciences and Engineering Research Council of Canada.


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