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Grant targets human trafficking

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Public education about human trafficking will increase through a $233,000 provincial grant to the Sexual Assault Survivors’ Centre Sarnia-Lambton.

The grant will be used to hire a human trafficking specialist who will be responsible for education, prevention and services for trafficking survivors.

The centre has been working on these issues but the specialist will allow for more comprehensive efforts.

“It’s still an issue people don’t believe happens in this community,” said Michelle Batty, the centre’s executive director.

There is confusion between smuggling where people pay to be moved to a new location and trafficking for labor or sex. Traffickers isolate and control people by withholding money and identification.

“Its a big business for traffickers,” said Batty.

People can be lured to a new location in pursuit of a relationship only to find themselves struggling to survive.

“It’s a crime,” said Batty.

Survivors found in Sarnia-Lambton have come from Quebec and Vancouver. Local residents are shuttled to other cities as part of the traffickers’ isolation-and-control tactics.

Trafficking is imbedded in the community and people need to know there is help for survivors. People see something but they don’t know what to do, said Batty comparing trafficking to the domestic-violence situation years ago.

The centre is an option and more people are seeking help.

During the past three years the number of people coming to the centre has increased by approximately 15 percent for a current total of 228.

The local funding was part of a $18.6 million provincial government grant package involving 45 agencies across Ontario.

Among Ontario’s reported cases of trafficking most deal with sexual exploitation with the majority of survivors being Canadian citizens or permanent residents.

nbowen@postmedia.com

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