It was an eye-opening experience for everyone in attendance Tuesday night, as the Ontario Provincial Police and Bridging Gaps Anti-Human Trafficking presented a human trafficking information night at Mitchell District High School.
Their executive director, Melanie (who is not fully identified due to risk concerns around her grassroots organization, which is made up of human trafficking survivors) told her story to the audience who filled up half of the gymnasium.
“I’m 50-plus now, and it'll be 25 years next April since I escaped,” she told the audience. “I was only 27, and I literally escaped after fifteen years in the game.”
The statistics around human trafficking are staggering as 96 percent of people trafficked are women, with the most common age to be trafficked being between 18-24, and over 90 percent of victims knew their trafficker.
It is important to know that human trafficking is not always sex based. Human trafficking is also labour trafficking, organ removal and arranged marriages, but the focus on the evening in Mitchell was mostly around sexual and labour human trafficking.
Melanie's story held the audience's attention for nearly an hour, from telling her tales of being in gangs and being a skin-head, to being an 'old lady' for a biker and more..
“After fleeing I got clean, got an education, and moved to Toronto to support what I call my type of people; the drug addicts and those in the sex trade,” she said.
It was stated multiple times during the evening that human trafficking is not just a city problem. In fact a question from the audience was posed to police on whether this is happening in Perth County, and the answer was yes. Police and anti-human trafficking officials say that London is a hotbed for organized crime and human trafficking due to its close proximity to the 401 corridor. Police discussed signs of sexual exploitation which can eventually lead to human trafficking, and everyone is asked to not ignore the signs.
Signs can include a person who cannot afford new clothing or jewellery suddenly having some, if the person has new tattoos, or branding, or scars from abuse, if the person has multiple cell phones, and no control of their identification. The average age of a person getting involved in human trafficking is 13, or 12 in the case of Indigenous people.
If you or someone you know is experiencing or suspects they know of someone who is experiencing human trafficking its important to call police. Find more resources by visiting https://www.canadiancentretoendhumantrafficking.ca/.
