In plain sight

Over the past five years, The Salvation Army in the UK has assisted over 4500 victims of human trafficking. It’s all around us, including New Zealand, says director Anne Read—If you have the eyes to see it.

Extraordinary’ is a word Major Anne Read uses a lot. And she’s right. It’s one of the few expressions that can start to describe the indescribable. It’s extraordinary that there are an estimated 800,000 people trafficked each year. It’s extraordinary that there are victims in every country, hiding in plain sight.

It’s extraordinary that a 57-year-old British citizen could be trafficked and forced to work long hours in captivity within his native country.

His name is Harry. ‘He is a British gentleman with a very strong work ethic, but not much education. His father died when he was young and he lived with his mother until she died. He was on his own, he started drinking and lost his job,’ describes Major Anne Read, Anti-Trafficking Response Coordinator for The Salvation Army in the United Kingdom and Ireland.

‘Harry was picked up at a soup kitchen. Often people will pull up at places like this offering £30 for a day’s labour. They offered him somewhere to stay, some work and some alcohol. So he went with them and from that day on he was captured and forced to work all hours of the day, living in a shed with no facilities and minimal food.’

At the age of 64, Harry was re-sold. ‘Because that’s the other aspect of human trafficking—drugs you can only sell once. But humans can be re-sold.’ Eventually, this elderly gentleman was picked up in a police raid and came to The Salvation Army reception centre. ‘He said, “For the first time in many years I can breathe again,” ’ recalls Anne. ‘You know what it’s like when you’re anxious or scared and feel like you can’t breathe. Imagine feeling like that for years on end.’

An extraordinary mission

In another of the list of ‘extraordinaries’, The Salvation Army was given the government contract to manage assistance for adult victims of human trafficking in 2011. This means working with 11 government agencies to provide help, as well as a 24/7 phone hotline for people either seeking help, or who have suspicions that trafficking is happening.

When police are preparing for a raid on suspected traffickers, The Salvation Army sets up a reception centre, where victims are assessed so they can receive all the help they need: safe accommodation, legal advice, medical support, help in recovering documents such as passports, help with accessing benefits, education for their children, and counselling.

A special Salvation Army fund helps victims recover in creative ways—through a trip to the seaside, a birthday party or a visit to the football stadium.

Building connections with local corps (churches) is another vital component. One corps connected with a local safe house and has included them in all their activities. ‘These connections mean they’re not isolated victims; people are beginning to gain some independence, social skills and language skills,’ explains Anne.

One of the specialised roles that Salvation Army corps play is in transporting victims of trafficking to safety. ‘There’s nothing that focuses your attention on the issue like having had a victim of trafficking in your car,’ says Anne. This engagement is essential, though, because it is ordinary people that are making the biggest difference in the fight against modern slavery.

It’s all around us

Public awareness is the number one key to curbing modern slavery. Most victims are saved because members of the public have spotted something suspicious and either tipped off the police or called the hotline.

‘Victims of human trafficking are all around us,’ explains Anne. ‘They are not locked up, completely out of sight. More often, they’re kept captive by the threats of the traffickers—threats to themselves, threats to their families, and also just by the sheer wearing down of people’s abilities to make decisions for themselves. They are in car washes, nails bars, in the hospitality industry, small businesses, restaurants, in domestic servitude, and the sex industry.’

It’s all about having the eyes to see, explains Anne. A person may seem frightened or controlled, or have unexplained injuries. They might turn up very early for a day’s work, and labour all day without a break or much food.

It might even be as simple as not having adequate clothing or resources for the job. ‘In one case a gentleman came back to a reception centre after some raids on car washes. The gentleman had been wearing canvas shoes, and in the car wash they’d been using lots of chemicals, so his shoes had become fused to his feet. He had to have them surgically removed,’ recalls Anne.

If it wasn’t all so horribly, vividly true, it would be unbelievable. One young woman came to The Salvation Army safe house from Rwanda. ‘She saw both of her parents killed in the genocide in Rwanda. She escaped to Uganda where she was raped, and had twins as a result. She was offered a job in the UK, but when she got here she was locked in a room, and from that day on, eight to 12 men were taken to her every day,’ recalls Anne.

‘One day, somebody left the door open and she had enough courage to run away, was picked up, and went to our safe house.’ Today, this young woman is a soldier at her local corps, her children are junior soldiers, and she is studying to be a nurse.

It’s a beautiful ending to a brutal story. ‘But what’s extraordinary is that she says her experience of being trafficked was worse than what she experienced in the genocide of Rwanda,’ adds Anne, ‘She’ll never get over it, but she is building a life for herself.’

Over there, not here?

It is horrific. It is inhuman. But surely it happens over there, not here?

Anne begs to differ. ‘Wherever there’s money to be made, people will be used as a commodity,’ she says. ‘Why wouldn’t it be happening in New Zealand? People can be brought in from Papua New Guinea, China and the Philippines [all origin countries for human trafficking], into domestic servitude, forced labour. I’m very confident it is happening in New Zealand.’

Immigration New Zealand confirms there have been two trafficking court cases in New Zealand. In the first case, 25 men in India were deceived into paying $30–40,000 each for the promise of a two-year work visa. When they got to New Zealand, they discovered no such visa existed, and were put to work on a vineyard with no pay.

The second case is currently before the courts, with 16 Fijian men being conned out of large sums of money for a promised job in New Zealand. 

But the first reported cases of trafficking go as far back as 2001, when Thai women who had been trafficked into prostitution in New Zealand were discovered. In more recent years, labour exploitation has been found in restaurants, seasonal work and on fishing boats.

Lieutenants Ameet and Jessica Londhe are assistant officers at East City Corps with responsibility for The Salvation Army’s new Flat Bush Outpost. In their homeland of India, Jessica worked extensively with women trafficked into prostitution. They have seen many of the same tell-tale signs within New Zealand’s migrant community, they say.

‘Typically, people become exploited when they are in vulnerable positions—they don’t know English, can’t drive, and can’t even read English numbers for the bus,’ says Ameet. They may end up in domestic servitude, working long hours with no pay. ‘They have no idea about community services that are set up for them. People think this is how it is, because they don’t have any contact outside their community or even family. They have no idea there is another way of living in this country.’

‘We’ve also gotten to know that many students coming from India are encouraged to have huge loans of $25-50,000 for a year, so a lot end up having to trade their bodies,’ adds Jessica.

Another common practice, explains Ameet, is a businessman encouraging someone to invest $20,000 into a business, which turns out to be a lie, leaving the person with nothing. ‘They have no means to survive, and are expected to send money back to their family.’

Doing the impossible

Last year, New Zealand trafficking laws were toughened to bring them into line with international standards. ‘These include measures to punish abduction, assault, kidnapping, rape, engaging underage prostitutes, coercing prostitutes, and exploiting labourers,’ says Cam Moore, manager of Serious Offences for Immigration New Zealand.

This is progress, but the New Zealand government still has many barriers to cross before it adequately exposes and arrests traffickers. There is no coordinated aftercare for victims, such as that in the UK. Nor do our laws match The Modern Slavery Act of the UK, which—among other things—requires all large businesses to ensure there is no slavery in their supply chains.

But real change will not start with government, it will start with people. In 2004, all the international leaders of The Salvation Army covenanted together to stop human trafficking in their territory. This includes New Zealand, Fiji and Tonga. The challenge has been set.

But can we really stem the tsunami of victims?

‘That’s where I want to set the bar. At stopping human trafficking,’ says Anne. ‘I think, honestly, realistically, it’s impossible. But we believe in a God who can do the impossible.’

As Nelson Mandela famously said, ‘It always seems impossible, until it’s done.’

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by Ingrid Barratt (c) 'War Cry' magazine, 17 September 2016, pp 5-7
You can read 'War Cry' at your nearest Salvation Army church or centre, or subscribe through Salvationist Resources.

SPEAK OUT!

If you are aware of, or suspect someone has been trafficked in New Zealand, contact your local Police for help. If it’s an emergency, call 111.

Call Crimestoppers on 0800 555 111 to report a case anonymously, or complete an Online Crimestoppers form.

The Facts

• Worldwide, more than 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked every year
• 77 per cent of trafficked victims are women
• 87 per cent of trafficked victims are sexually exploited
• Human trafficking is a worldwide criminal activity with annual profits estimated to be $32 billion (USD)
• Women are sold for £500–£8000
• In New Zealand, it’s estimated that there are currently around 500 victims of trafficking.

Source: UNODC/Home Office/Global Slavery Index