May 17, 2007

CALGARY – The Future Group commends the federal government for moving forward towards ensuring Canada is not a haven for human traffickers and the exploitation of women in the underground sex trade.

Yesterday, Immigration Minister Diane Finley introduced an amendment to the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act that will give authority to the Minister to instruct immigration officers to prevent women from being exploited through work permits as exotic dancers.

“Immigration Minister Diane Finley has taken an important step to protect women from sexual exploitation and end a program that made Canada complicit in human trafficking,” said Sabrina Sullivan, Managing Director of The Future Group.

The Future Group has long called for the abolition of Canada’s exotic dancer visa scheme, calling it an “international beacon of exploitation” that made it easier – not harder – for human traffickers to spirit vulnerable young women into sexual exploitation. For example, in 2004, while 601 foreign women received temporary work permits for exotic dancing, fully 582 (97%) of them were from Romania. 

Other countries, like Japan, have taken steps in recent years to curb the overseas recruitment of sex workers because it was found that they were particularly vulnerable to human traffickers and organized crime. Once in the country, they simply would fall between the cracks of the sex trade.

In March 2006, The Future Group’s report entitled Falling Short of the Mark gave Canada a failing grade for taking insufficient steps to curb human trafficking, compared with other developed countries. Since then, the new federal government has taken a leadership role in getting Canada back on track.

“It is clear that Prime Minister Stephen Harper’s government is serious about combating human trafficking,” said Sullivan, “In just one year, it has implemented guidelines to protect victims, injected funding in the 2007 Federal Budget to begin to address the problem, and has now taken proactive steps to prevent at least some victims from being exploited.”

“We expect that the government will devote sufficient training, resources, and follow-up with immigration officials to ensure that these legislative changes are effective,” concluded Sullivan, “We also hope to see human traffickers prosecuted and brought to justice.”

The Future Group is a leading Canadian non-partisan, non-governmental organization founded in 2000 that specializes in combating human trafficking and has worked with victims in Southeast Asia, West Africa and Latin America.

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For more information, please contact:

Sabrina Sullivan

Managing Director

The Future Group

Email: ssullivan@thefuturegroup.org

Phone: (403) 612-0396