Sarah Choi, Amelia Pezzente, Jordana Silva-Pintos

Part 3&4- Child Trafficking

CYCS 3014
Zuby Salooje
Monday, March 9, 2015

Social Justice Assignment

Part Three
i)

The summaries from the three of our group members that are being integrated into one
summary are firstly, Domestic Sex Trafficking of Aboriginal Girls in Canada: Issues
and Implications by Anupriya Sethi. Secondly, Trafficking in Children in Canada:
Preliminary Assessment by Louise Langevin, Vrej Atabekian, and Jean-Franois
Nol. Lastly, The Right to Have a Family: Legal trafficking of Children, Adoption and
Birth Control in Brazil by Andrea Cardarello.

ii)

We have combined and pulled out information, key concepts and main issues from each
article that we all summarized individually. Firstly, from this particular article
Domestic Sex Trafficking of Aboriginal Girls we learned that many young girls have
gone missing yearly. Child trafficking occurs worldwide, in one of the articles it states
that Canada is a country of destination and transit for child trafficking. (Langevin,
Atabekian & Noel, 2004). Most people dont think child trafficking does not occur nor
exist in Canada and this is mostly because the public does not hear about it taking place.
For most reasons, it is kept as a secret. Most victims of child trafficking are too scared
to report or to tell anyone of their traffickers and what they are forcing them to do. They
are scared for their safety of their lives because they are threatened that they will get
injured or worst killed. Child trafficking is not only about sexual exploitation and sex
work. Although, it is a main issue of child trafficking, there are other parts that go with
child trafficking. These include domestic work, farming, underground factories, forced
labour, slavery and confinement to their organs. Many children are trafficked for power
and control which they are forced into prostitution for their survival needs. We learned

that in a couple of the articles that myself and one of my group members have
summarized are similar in specific ways and they have something in common. The
thing that they do have in common is poverty, poverty is a main cause of sexual
exploitation and one of the reasons why is because the lack of resources that they do
not have. This is why in Brazil, they believe international adoption is a positive thing
because it allows children to be raised in wealth or with a family that will support and
will benefit them. One of the resources that will be beneficial for these children are
health care and education. (Cardarello, 2012).
In addition, child trafficking is a main issue that is evolving in Canada and worldwide
and it is something that we need to prevent. To achieve effectiveness in fighting against
child trafficking, there needs to be more collaboration and harmonization between
agencies, governments, and countries.
iii)

As some of our articles state, the most vulnerable victims of child trafficking are those
in poverty and in desperate need. These children and their families have no hope except
selling themselves/their children or to use it as an opportunity to earn money for their
family. Also, trafficking involves use of power and threat by the trafficker. When these
children are trafficked, they merely become the possession of the trafficker. At this
stage, the children are controlled by the trafficker and are essentially trapped. In
addition, children and their families are deceived by the traffickers. This case is so
especially in the Aboriginal community. Some children and majority of the Aboriginal
children lack sense of belonging and are easy to involve in street community. As a
result they become more vulnerable in becoming a victim of child trafficking.
Traffickers would approach these children and deceive these children to get them

involved in trafficking, whether it is romantically or friendly. As these children become

trafficked, their rights become violated. They are forced into the poorest condition of
living and lose their freedom. It is possibly not wrong to say that none of the human
rights apply for these children. These children are left in this condition, without a
termination date, facing no hope. These children require more attention from the public.
These victims of child trafficking come from the ignorance of the communities and the
public. These children need to be provided with their basic needs and rights of living
when they were with their family to prevent them being trafficked.
iv)

We, as a group, are passionate about this topic, child trafficking, because these children
do not deserve to be suffering from being trafficked. These children who are victims
of child trafficking are taken advantage of, being exploited, and their rights are getting
violated. Also, the issue of child trafficking is being kept secretive, especially in
developed countries like Canada. When we hear about this particular issue, it is mostly
stories from developing countries. However, from our articles, it is evident that child
trafficking indeed happens in this country as well, Canada. The fact that it is kept secret
prevents the victims from getting the support that they need. We feel that it is crucial
to make these underground issues public. We certainly believe that it is necessary to
raise awareness to the public and children and their families.

v)

The role we would have in promoting understanding, education, and advocacy on

child trafficking would be to promote awareness by putting together a presentation in
which we will explain what child trafficking is and the different ways in which child
trafficking exists, including here in Canada. We will create a website I n which we
will post updated information on child trafficking along with the link to the valid

article/s. These presentations could take place in public libraries, college and
universities, and where it is desired.
This will educate others as well as ourselves about certain occurrences that both our
audience and ourselves where unaware of. This will give our audience a sense of
awareness on our topic as well as a place in which they could advocate their thoughts
and feelings on this topic.
vi)

Advocacy on child trafficking is important to us as a group because we all feel

strongly about this situation that occurs worldwide. We do not think any child should
but put through any form of child trafficking because it is traumatizing and not
deserved. We want to advocate that these children should not have to be punished and
trafficked as they are not at fault for their low income families, or for anything for
that matter, and they deserve a childhood as all children do.

vii)

The stakeholders that are involved with child trafficking are the parents and families of
these children who are being trafficked. We feel that the families can do more to help
take control of their children and from being exploited and taken advantage of. If
families of these children feel that they cannot support or provide the basic needs for
their children they should be provided or have some resources that they know they can
go to for the extra support. We also believe that youth workers are concerned for the
safety of the childrens lives. We are willing to try to reach these stakeholders to
provide them with more education and knowledge about child trafficking and to
provide them the statistics of how much it is occurring in Canada. By doing this, this
will help to provide knowledge and to give them resources on what we can do as a
society to prevent and limit this from taking place.