New hotline targets victims of human trafficking
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The young woman sobs in a lonely hotel room on the airport strip.
She is mortified at the pit of horrors her life has become, a victim of sex trafficking reduced to loveless low-rent rooms and a daily grind of terror.
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Where can she turn?
Now, victims of human trafficking are getting the help they desperately need.
A new national hotline to help victims and survivors is taking calls in a slew of different languages and for the disabled.
The initiative of the Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking launched on Wednesday.
“This hotline will provide critical resources to victims and survivors and will help law enforcement dismantle human trafficking networks across the country,” CEO Barbara Gosse said, adding that this vile crime “is a real threat to vulnerable individuals”.
Gosse and a panel of police and social workers noted Wednesday that the crime is not abstract.
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It is happening next door, to your neighbour’s daughter, to Indigenous women and new immigrants alike.
Several speakers said the problem has reached “epidemic proportions,” saying human trafficking can be found in small towns and big cities alike, coast to coast.
“In actual fact … human trafficking is happening in communities right across this country. And that is a threat to every vulnerable girl, woman, man or boy,” Gosse said.
The hotline — 1-833-900-1010 — will be open 24 hours, 365 days a year and operators can field inquiries in more than 200 languages.
Services are also available for the deaf, non-verbal, blind and visually impaired.
Canada is taking a cue from the United States and the United Kingdom in setting up the toll-free helpline.
In addition to red-flagging incidents that are unfolding, the line puts those afflicted by the heinous crime in touch with community resources to help them escape.
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Besides the law enforcement and support aspects, organizers hope to collect data to give them a better gauge on the problem.
Toronto Police Supt. Pauline Gray — who oversees sex crimes, missing persons and sex crimes — said her 18 investigators are “terrific cops”.
“There is no set demographic in this but we are seeing more female recruiting in high school,” Gray said.
“But also, let’s think about the demand … focusing on sex purchasers. They are equally culpable. It is abuse. It is criminal.”
Statistics Canada, which has tracked instances of police-reported human trafficking, said the practice has been steadily on the rise since 2010.
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