Child slavery fight needs Canadian help

Canadians should educate themselves about how they can help fight human trafficking and child slavery, international development organization World Vision says.

The group is launching a three-year campaign against child slavery, including human trafficking, which they say overlaps with slavery because children are often trafficked into the dangerous, degrading or dirty jobs that are the subject of the campaign.

The push comes on the heels of the sentencing of Ferenc Domotor, the leader of the biggest proven human trafficking ring in the country's history. Domotor was sentenced to nine years in prison for luring Hungarian men to Canada to work from dawn to dusk in construction in return for table scraps.

World Vision’s campaign focuses on children, and isn't limited to Canada. It cites a UNICEF estimate that 126 million child labourers worldwide do dangerous work and an International Labour Organization estimate that approximately 1.2 million children are trafficked for labour or sexual exploitation at any given time, representing half of the people trafficked worldwide.

And for every trafficking victim forced into prostitution, which gets the bulk of the media attention, nine others are forced into work in places like factories, sweatshops, boats, and farms.

"Child labour is a problem that affects millions of kids around the world," said Carleen McGuinty, a child protection specialist at World Vision.

"Our experience has shown that an NGO [non-governmental organization] can't do it on its own, consumers can't do it on their own, governments can't do it on their own, we all need to be working together."

"We need more than laws and more than legislation."

Anti-trafficking plan due

The Conservatives promised in their 2011 election platform to develop a national action plan to combat human trafficking. McGuinty says one element of World Vision's campaign is a petition asking the government to address the needs of children and to work to stop children from being trafficked in the first place.

Officials weren't immediately available to say where that action plan stands.

The government can play a crucial role in its international work, McGuinty says.

The Canadian International Development Agency, already working in the field in poor countries, can work with labour organizations to make sure workers are educated about their rights and that those rights are enforced.

Or when children are being vaccinated, workers can check whether they have a birth certificate.

"Without a birth certificate, that child will never be able to migrate safely, so they’ll never be able to get a passport or a legal work visa... Birth registration is a really critical, basic piece," McGuinty said.

"It proves their age, so first of all if they are in a factory and they're 12 years old, they can prove that actually, I'm 12 and I shouldn't be here, so they can get the protection they need. And if they're working in another country illegally, it can help repatriate them, to get them back home, to show where they live, who their parents are."

Need to 'clasp our hands' across borders

Conservative MP Joy Smith has a private member's bill, C-310, that would let Canada prosecute Canadian citizens and permanent residents for human trafficking offences outside the country. That's important, she says, because often traffickers work in countries without strong judicial systems.

"Human trafficking is worldwide and we need to clasp our hands across all the borders to make sure that we're working and talking with one voice to stop human trafficking," Smith said.

"World Vision is totally on the mark when they’re calling for everyone to work together."

The bill will also define exploitation and human trafficking explicitly, she said, to give the courts extra tools.

Smith's proposed law has made it through the House committee stage, but hit a delay when the NDP voted against the bill at report stage in early April, preventing it from moving to the next hour of debate.

Smith says another Conservative MP, Harold Albrecht, gave up the next slot for his private member's bill so that her bill can get its debate on April 23.