Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Canada (Agenzia Fides) - Canada. I did not sleep at all, no easing of tensions, dreams, expectations. The hotel is very good, perhaps the best in all my travelling. Everything is spotless. Even the TV monitor says "welcome Mr Luca De Mata”. The bed is enormous. White sheets like clouds ready to take me dreaming. Exhausted, I collect my recorder and camera bag. The thought that I'll be back is consoling. The great bed into which to slip and to sleep. Sleep is here, knocking ferociously, demanding its time. I would, but my Canadian friend is already ringing the telephone in my room. Impatience in his words. Impatience in fatigue at the end of its cycle, calling me to regenerate myself. I struggle to keep awake. The responsibility of coming so far, the people and the organisations involved press me with schedules and deadlines programmed weeks ago. I close the door of my room bearing weighty working apparatus, besieged by jet lag. It was never this bad. Flying is great. Journeys which once took months, now last a little more than twenty hours and you are in a place once only heard of in tales from someone who had been there. The lift descends swiftly. I and my friend embrace like old friends, although our only contact has been e-mail communication, intense sharing of ideas and a passion for the Truth. This friendship is the web of solidarity. Yesterday letters travelled at the same pace and on the same path as people: today the web brings people together in real time. Still more in our field. My words will never have the freshness of mobile phone film testimony. The chronicler of today has to synthesise a phenomenon which he has studied, and which he has seen, and verified on the field. The story of the journalist today becomes reflection, he joins the culture debate and is sent with a large baggage of knowledge which he enriches in real time and compares on the territory in real time, among the people, amidst the crises. The phenomena of our planet. In a way it is more exciting. The game is different. Your story becomes a report on something you are sharing. If all this has its own motivation, you make it even more concrete, meeting men and women who have made their life a mission to help others. Sharing yourself with those in the streets who have chosen to look at the faces they meet instead of their own two feet. It is not easy to care about a total stranger whose life is a mix of misfortune, injustice, desperation, solitude, violence. I am in Canada and I am floating among reflections which distance me from the real purpose of my coming here to document. It must be tiredness. I hear in my head a buzzing jumble of distant phrases of about why I am here: illegal immigration in North America. The taxi races towards our destination. Crossing leafy avenues and happy parks of children. It is afternoon. It the heat of the day the sunlight projects intertwining shadows, smudging the borders between what is real and what you see. My friend is speaking. Fatigue makes me lose track of what he says. He doesn't notice. I am struggling with sleep again. The colours of the buildings distorted in the golden light pour into my thoughts, holes of anguish, brimming with human beings, fleeing, hiding from hope. My friend is speaking. I have stopped trying to listen. In this land I too feel I am an illegal immigrant. A delirium of paranoia. I ask myself if I too am running. “No!” I tell myself “I have a permit to be here in this country ”. I have seen too many horrible sights, listened to too many stories of abuse and new slavery (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0vM7-5cSEY) not to realise the desperation which clings like rat catching glue to these desperate men and women. Coming close to the suburbs the scenery is not very different. The houses are all alike. Here and there, patches of submerged misery. You see it in the clothing of the people crossing the road, the scars on automobile bodywork. The children I pass are groups. No joy or games. Anxiety for life written over faded front doors. I ask how far it is to the appointment with Janet Dench ( Executive Director of one of the most efficient organisations in this great country. Concerned with reception, they also study the phenomenon of migratory flows and with rare competence) - A desire to understand, to know, supplies me with a little adrenaline. Fatigue and curiosity make the long journey even seem pleasant. Montreal is a fine city, safe, different from other great cities in the neighbouring US. Here you never sense danger, sudden hostility from a neighbour, ghetto districts, off-limits for anyone not of the same ethnic origin. Here there is no concentration of areas of misery where poverty cancels law and behaviour to the advantage of major groups. Probably this exists here too, as I will discover partly in my conversation with Janet Dench, but it is not thrown in your face. Janet Dench is not one for questions. We sit down. I have just the time to turn my recorder on and she starts, with intelligence which stems from perfect knowledge of what she is speaking about, to tackle the question of migratory flows in her own country and in the world: “The issue of 'human trafficking' focuses on the problem of the 'strong' abusing the 'weak'. Wealth and power is unevenly distributed in the world. There are possessions, developing areas, rich countries which exploit the people of poorer countries. We see this here in Canada too. We began tackling the problem some years ago. By definition 'human trafficking” happens underground, not in the open. People don't know about it, not even those who champion respect for the human rights of immigrants and refugees and there are many reasons for this. It is denied! Here in Canada many say:“ human trafficking does not exist”, or perhaps “not in our city”. The truth is that people prefer to keep their eyes closed, rather than look at and understand situations which exist. When they do talk about “human trafficking” they tend to emphasise sexual abuse, forced prostitution. This is only one of the more visible aspects. Other aspects are nearer home. For example domestic questions We have seen many cases in Canada in which a family, a person, a man, woman or child, is kept at home and forced to work non stop, no free time and no pay! The person's fragility is exploited, abused. The poor are vulnerable, many come from areas of oppression. When traffickers deliver them to another country, like il Canada, where they probably know no one, have no legal status, probably speak no English or French. In these conditions they cannot react. And so traffickers grow rich in total impunity. In Canada perhaps the situation of “human trafficking” is less acute and diffused as in other countries. Is there a solution? A society relatively as egalitarian as possible, a society which guarantees the rights of every individual. This is one of the reasons why there is less “human trafficking” in this country. But individual situations of exploitation do exist: domestic, commercial, in factories. And even the word “Trafficking” is misleading because exploitation has various levels: cases in which the person is totally under control, without pay, or cases in which people are threatened although they are paid in a very disadvantaged situation, not to mention people with visas for temporary jobs who live on a razor blade because they have a status, but if they complain about working conditions they can be deported from Canada.(http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M0vM7-5cSEY) This is the most exploited category. For some years now our organisation has studied the situation seeking to promote awareness among other organisations and the more involved authorities such as the police. We see that exploited people are who have no entry permit for Canada, are treated by the police as no Status immigrants; in other words, illegal workers. Inevitably these people are sent to prison and then deported even though, they are the victims. We have come to the conclusion that our energies should focus on two priorities: increasing awareness of “human trafficking”, and guaranteeing protection for “persons subject to trafficking”. It should not be forgotten that when illegal workers are repatriated they are even more vulnerable and exposed to unbearable situations. Canadian law says nothing specific about “persons subject to trafficking” and they probably end up in prison; this is a matter of deep concern for us because not only does our Law fail to guarantee proper protection for “persons subject to trafficking ” , as for victims of crime, it punishes them and probably with prison. We are pushing for specific amendments to the law to grant entry to “ persons subject to trafficking ” and urgent and immediate protection so they feel that here in Canada they are safe. We ask for their basic needs for survival to be met, that they need not fear immediate deportation and have sufficient time to recover from their tragic experience and trauma and then calmly decide about their future whether they want to return home, stay in Canada for protection, or to go some other country. We are also proposing that “ persons subject to trafficking ” be offered permanent residence in Canada. Our organisation, “Canadian Council for Refugees” represents some 180 organisations working to promote respect for rights of refugees and immigrants. Our members include lawyers but our main goal is to build a network of organisations working with refugees, learning from one another and sharing information. We supply tools and produce material to illustrate the issue of “human trafficking” and we ask our members to join us in our efforts to make government change the laws and ensure that “ persons subject to trafficking ” receive protection in Canada.” She shakes hands and says goodbye with a warm smile, then accompanies to the door and wishes me luck with my investigation. All through the night her words whirl about in my head. One thing is certain thousands and thousands all over the world devote their lives to combating human trafficking, but the great majority of people have no idea of what is happening just as they fail to realise the necessity to fight drug abuse and rehabilitate its victims : nevertheless these two issues coincide far more than I thought when I started this investigation (from Canada, Luca De Mata) (17 - to be followed) (Agenzia Fides 20/4/2009)
