Human trafficking is a big concern for every Canadian resort out there, here is why
It happens every day in tourist hotel and resorts, yet the public is unaware of this topic.
The hospitality and tourism industry needs to give a second thought to human trafficking problems and issues related to it because it’s “illegal recruitment of employees with an illegal immigration status” says the vice-president of the hospitality sector of a resort on Tuesday.
James Henry, vice-president of hospitality at Blue Mountain and one of the panelists said, “I was one of those people last year that said, ‘it couldn’t happen here, not in our town,’ yet it did,”
“We were the only resort at the point that point in the time that was named publicly regardless of the others and one of the reasons why we were named publicly was because we participated actively with EOPP and Canadian border services in their investigation after the human trafficking case at Blue Mountain,” said Henry
Manipulation in human trafficking
Chandra Cureton, a consultant at Onyx Investigations and Security Inc. said, “People who are doing the manipulating are very skilled at what they do, they are coercing and mentally manipulating.”
Human traffickers often manipulate people from the age of 18-25 to work for them as it works out to be easier to take control of the system of trafficking prostitutes all over North America.
Rachel Dodds, a leader in issues surrounding sustainable tourism development and a professor at Ryerson University said, “There is such a strong mental connection and manipulation there that you know that the person is just they feel lost without the person that is abusing them because of the same person is also providing them.”
It is a worldwide issue
Lyndsay Munholland, Senior Program Manager at JPDL and panelist said, “Why I didn’t think local and macro because when I thought about labor trafficking and labor exploitation that’s what I thought when I saw a group of Sri Lankan immigrants that are living in a shipping container being carted off to work.”
Wonu Johnson, a travel blogger, and a podcast host said, “When I went to Dubai, there was something off about Dubai I didn’t read. I had flashes of just like buses and buses of workers being taken to work and they are a certain type of people that were on the buses and you sort of realizing that they’re coming from particular countries being you know, Sri Lanka, Bangladesh, India and they’re men.”