Thursday » February 26 » 2004
Canada blamed for human trafficking
U.S. says lax rules encourage foreign criminals
Sheldon Alberts and Kerry Williamson
CanWest News Service; Calgary Herald
Thursday, February 26, 2004
The U.S. State Department has blamed Canada's "lax immigration laws" and generous welfare system for growing problems the country is facing from organized crime groups that traffic in women and children for prostitution and forced labour.
In its annual report on global human rights practices, the State Department warned Canada has become a major transit point and destination for human trafficking.
The report came just three days after 12 South Koreans were caught attempting to walk across the U.S.-Canada border near the Coutts-Sweetgrass crossing, a bust officials say has put a dent in an international human smuggling ring with its tentacles across Western Canada.
Two South Korean women will likely be thrown out of the country Friday as a result of the bust, and will likely be followed by eight more following immigration hearings in Calgary today.
The women admitted they came to Canada for the sole purpose of being smuggled into the U.S.
"Vancouver and Toronto served as hubs for organized crime groups that traffic in persons, including trafficking for prostitution," the report said.
"East Asian crime groups targeted the country, and Vancouver in particular, because of lax immigration laws, benefits available to immigrants and the proximity to the U.S. border."
The report, released Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said there "was no reliable data" on the extent of the human trafficking problem in Canada.
It said "at least 15,000 Chinese" had entered Canada illegally over the past decade, many of them paying thousands to smugglers only to end up working as indentured servants or prostitutes.
Other experts said those smuggled into Canada and the U.S. are often forced to work in sweatshops or factories, or on farms, as cheap, almost slave, labourers. Chinese pay an average of $35,000 to get smuggled into Canada.
"Asian women and girls who were smuggled into the country often were forced into prostitution," the report states.
"Traffickers used intimidation and violence, as well as the illegal immigrants' inability to speak English, to keep victims from running away or informing the police."
Canada's immigration laws, rather than helping victims of human trafficking, exacerbated the suffering, the report suggested.
"Victims may apply for permanent residence under the 'humanitarian and compassionate' provisions of the Immigration Act," the report said.
"However, some victims of trafficking were arrested and deported. In prostitution cases, often the prostitute, instead of the customer, was arrested."
Det. Const. Jim Fisher of the Vancouver Police Service, and formerly the Asian organized crime co-ordinator at the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, agreed Canada is often a conduit for illegal migrants heading for the U.S.
He said it is an "urban myth" that Canada is easier to smuggle people into than the U.S., but admitted patrolling the U.S.-Canada border is a nearly impossible task.
"The other thing that makes us a target country, we don't have the resources dedicated to protect our ports and borders that the U.S. has," Fisher told the Calgary Herald. "That was true pre-9/11 and I'm certainly sure it is true after.
"And it's not like there is a few weak parts. It's an indefensible border."
Fisher said the problem is growing. In the past year, the number of South Koreans caught illegally crossing the B.C. border into Washington state has increased tenfold, to more than 100.
"These are the ones that got caught trying. The numbers of people who made it successfully across? We don't know."
Jacqueline Oxman-Martinez, a research associate at the Centre of Applied Family Studies at Montreal's McGill University, who has written several papers on the issue, said Canada acts both as a destination for people paying to be smuggled and a jumping-off point for people illegally crossing into the United States.
But she said it is a two-way flow, with thousands of illegal immigrants also heading north each year, particularly from New York to Montreal.
"Most of the time, it is the opposite," Oxman-Martinez said. "We are getting people from the U.S. smuggled into Canada. Traffickers smuggle people without documents from New York into Montreal so they can have a better life.
"It's a complete underground thing. They have their own medical service. It's enormous underground."
Oxman-Martinez said a town such as Vulcan, about 120 kilometres southeast of Calgary -- where 10 of the South Koreans were found after scattering at the Montana border Sunday night -- act as "staging points" for migrants crossing illegally into the States.
"They do it out of desperation in terms of poverty or inequality, in many senses," she said. "Sometimes it is even just general persecution, or violence against women."
Oxman-Martinez said Canada's "tough" immigration laws -- described as "lax" in the U.S. report -- often drive people to smuggling operations.
"It is hard to get a legal visa into Canada. It's not easy to get immigrant status in Canada. You need to have a very solid economic and professional background to get into Canada. It is very difficult," she said.
"Or you can pay to be smuggled in, for between $6,000 and $15,000. For some, that is easier."
South Koreans to be kicked out, see page A5.
© Copyright 2004 Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/story.asp?id=554309FF-C556-414C-8299-89222444B2CF
Canada blamed for human trafficking
U.S. says lax rules encourage foreign criminals
Sheldon Alberts and Kerry Williamson
CanWest News Service; Calgary Herald
A South Korean, accused of get into
the U.S. illegally, sits in a hearing
Wednesday in Calgary.
Thursday, February 26, 2004
The U.S. State Department has blamed Canada's "lax immigration laws" and generous welfare system for growing problems the country is facing from organized crime groups that traffic in women and children for prostitution and forced labour.
In its annual report on global human rights practices, the State Department warned Canada has become a major transit point and destination for human trafficking.
The report came just three days after 12 South Koreans were caught attempting to walk across the U.S.-Canada border near the Coutts-Sweetgrass crossing, a bust officials say has put a dent in an international human smuggling ring with its tentacles across Western Canada.
Two South Korean women will likely be thrown out of the country Friday as a result of the bust, and will likely be followed by eight more following immigration hearings in Calgary today.
The women admitted they came to Canada for the sole purpose of being smuggled into the U.S.
"Vancouver and Toronto served as hubs for organized crime groups that traffic in persons, including trafficking for prostitution," the report said.
"East Asian crime groups targeted the country, and Vancouver in particular, because of lax immigration laws, benefits available to immigrants and the proximity to the U.S. border."
The report, released Wednesday by U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell, said there "was no reliable data" on the extent of the human trafficking problem in Canada.
It said "at least 15,000 Chinese" had entered Canada illegally over the past decade, many of them paying thousands to smugglers only to end up working as indentured servants or prostitutes.
Other experts said those smuggled into Canada and the U.S. are often forced to work in sweatshops or factories, or on farms, as cheap, almost slave, labourers. Chinese pay an average of $35,000 to get smuggled into Canada.
"Asian women and girls who were smuggled into the country often were forced into prostitution," the report states.
"Traffickers used intimidation and violence, as well as the illegal immigrants' inability to speak English, to keep victims from running away or informing the police."
Canada's immigration laws, rather than helping victims of human trafficking, exacerbated the suffering, the report suggested.
"Victims may apply for permanent residence under the 'humanitarian and compassionate' provisions of the Immigration Act," the report said.
"However, some victims of trafficking were arrested and deported. In prostitution cases, often the prostitute, instead of the customer, was arrested."
Det. Const. Jim Fisher of the Vancouver Police Service, and formerly the Asian organized crime co-ordinator at the Criminal Intelligence Service Canada, agreed Canada is often a conduit for illegal migrants heading for the U.S.
He said it is an "urban myth" that Canada is easier to smuggle people into than the U.S., but admitted patrolling the U.S.-Canada border is a nearly impossible task.
"The other thing that makes us a target country, we don't have the resources dedicated to protect our ports and borders that the U.S. has," Fisher told the Calgary Herald. "That was true pre-9/11 and I'm certainly sure it is true after.
"And it's not like there is a few weak parts. It's an indefensible border."
Fisher said the problem is growing. In the past year, the number of South Koreans caught illegally crossing the B.C. border into Washington state has increased tenfold, to more than 100.
"These are the ones that got caught trying. The numbers of people who made it successfully across? We don't know."
Jacqueline Oxman-Martinez, a research associate at the Centre of Applied Family Studies at Montreal's McGill University, who has written several papers on the issue, said Canada acts both as a destination for people paying to be smuggled and a jumping-off point for people illegally crossing into the United States.
But she said it is a two-way flow, with thousands of illegal immigrants also heading north each year, particularly from New York to Montreal.
"Most of the time, it is the opposite," Oxman-Martinez said. "We are getting people from the U.S. smuggled into Canada. Traffickers smuggle people without documents from New York into Montreal so they can have a better life.
"It's a complete underground thing. They have their own medical service. It's enormous underground."
Oxman-Martinez said a town such as Vulcan, about 120 kilometres southeast of Calgary -- where 10 of the South Koreans were found after scattering at the Montana border Sunday night -- act as "staging points" for migrants crossing illegally into the States.
"They do it out of desperation in terms of poverty or inequality, in many senses," she said. "Sometimes it is even just general persecution, or violence against women."
Oxman-Martinez said Canada's "tough" immigration laws -- described as "lax" in the U.S. report -- often drive people to smuggling operations.
"It is hard to get a legal visa into Canada. It's not easy to get immigrant status in Canada. You need to have a very solid economic and professional background to get into Canada. It is very difficult," she said.
"Or you can pay to be smuggled in, for between $6,000 and $15,000. For some, that is easier."
South Koreans to be kicked out, see page A5.
© Copyright 2004 Calgary Herald
http://www.canada.com/calgary/calgaryherald/story.asp?id=554309FF-C556-414C-8299-89222444B2CF