Ottawa Raids see eleven deported and no trafficking victims found...
shocker....same as always....see how well your stupid ideology impacts our lives? see how much your crusade to end trafficking no matter the harms to sex workers is working...? this was a really awesome idea....give men power over migrant women....how feminist....
For Immediate Release -
SEX WORKER RIGHTS GROUPS CONDEMN THE RAIDS ON MASSAGE PARLOURS THAT LED TO THE DEPORTATION OF ELEVEN WOMEN
May 11, 2015 – The threat of deportation in human trafficking investigations increases women’s vulnerability to violence and limits their ability to come forward as victims, say sex workers’ rights groups.
On Friday, May 8th 2015, the Ottawa Police Service announced that 11 women will be deported after a human trafficking investigation into commercial massage parlours and body rub facilities. No criminal charges were laid but police said the border services investigation continues, which could spark more deportations.
“The threat of deportation makes it extremely difficult for migrant sex workers to come forward as victims or witnesses of a crime,” says Jean McDonald of Maggie’s – Toronto Sex Workers Action Project. “People swept up in human trafficking investigations should be offered permanent residency and immediate immunity from deportation.”
Elene Lam of Butterfly, an Asian and Migrant Sex Workers Support Network, stated, “Migrant sex workers are often the target of robbery and assault. They are afraid to report to police or seek help because they do not want to be deported. Investigations under the guise of trafficking and police raids make the situation even worse. It makes people hide further underground, makes them more vulnerable to violence and endangers their safety.”
These raids come shortly after the enacting of the new sex work laws, the Protection of Community and Exploited Persons Act.
“To push through Canada’s new prostitution laws, the Government conflated consensual sex work and human trafficking. We are working together to demand meaningful protection for sex workers and migrants in the form of legal rights and labour protections,” says Emily Symons of POWER.
The raids that transpired in Ottawa clearly demonstrate how the new laws increase the isolation and exclusion of all sex workers, and have additional negative impact on racialized and migrant sex workers, affecting their health, equity, dignity, safety and human rights, due to the threat of detention and deportation.
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For contact information for spokespeople, contact POWER atpowerottawa@gmail.com or Maggie's at maggiescoord@gmail.com
in vancouver after anti immigrant raids focused on asian sex work venues only....no one was arrested for trafficking...no one was rescued from trafficking....many were deported.....and then the real violence began....because of fear of deportation, they would not report violence and criminal cowards realized it....then began systematically robbing and terrorizing migrnat workers....until finally a security guy was stabbed to death....defending the safety of two women working in the sex work venue.....
way to make people safe.....
what a joke....congratuations abolitionists....your plan is working....
Notice how abolishionist have nothing to say? They have nothing to say, they don't care about these women, sex workers are just pawn, to be used and tossed away when they're no longer of political use.
I've been a feminist and supporter of women's libration for a long time, but as the movement is increasingly towards tyranny and away from liberty, I find myself increasingly sickened by the blantant corruption, hypocracy, human rights violations, ect... supported and purpatotrated by the mainstream of feminism. WTF happened?
i agree brachina...its really unbelievable that women continue to view other women as a reasonable casualty in their fight against sex work...
do you know why we never hear from workers who are impacted by this kind of enforcement/ violence against migrant sex workers....?
because they are gone....arrested...thrown in prison and deported....yet some groups....like the asian women's coalition on ending prostitution....claim to be working in these vulnerable women's best interest.....bullshit.....
If it makes you feel better. No one has anything to say about trans women of color either it seems. i think there is alot of apathy because we are not part of the mainstream community. We have to love ourself. you guys are beautiful and awsome women. Keep your head up high. we are in this together.
I support your rights takeitslowly
Thanks! And I believe every person has the right to work in a safe working enivornment, including sex worker. I do not condone or condemn anyone who is in that profession. I am no better or worse than someone who does sex work becasue everyone is different , and has difference unique experience.
i am glad you are here takeitslowly! thanks for all your comments in this crazy time....
still feeling a little put out by this whole thing...its weird to talk about MM labour rights....she deserves rights i guess and we don't...not that its related to the petetion topic but i still find it ironic...
th obviousness of the cliche....person who fights against labor rights for sex workers demands labor rights for themself....
i wish we could be working towards occupational health and safety ....i wish i was not a criminal....i wish we could have been moving forward in our labor movement but instead here we are....
and because of the misrepresentation of our lives...here we will remain...
i am not sure how people don't understand that some of the language used in discussions about sex work could be considered hate speech....it feels like hate speech....especially when its overtly miss leading....
some people say its not hatred, its just opposing opinions....well...tell that to the women being deported....they were targeted because they are a distinct community...they are asian sex workers....people often specualte about their conditions and then package their speculations as fact....the police were going in to "save" them....this is the result of hate speech....their were lied about, then targeted and exposed to violence as a result of those lies...
i don't care if they were working here illegally....that is not the point....
the point is the words of the so called "voiceless few" "radical" feminists...are not small and marginal....they are the loudest and most privilidged....they are the ones who are heard...they are the only voice getting traction in policy....
if they are not listened to then how did canada end up in this mess? how is it that the actual facts are lost in these discussions? because of hate speech...deliberate misrepresentation for the pupose of their personal and private goal ....the abolition of prostitution...
its a fucking gong show.....
I don't see how we could exempt a sex worker working in Canada illegally but deport any other worker working in Canada illegally. If the law ever made such an exemption, then anyone working in Canada illegally in any trade or profession would suddenly feel the pressure to turn to sex work in order to obtain this special exemption. Would a better solution not be to promote common labour agreements with other countries so as to allow Canadians to work abroad without a visa and vice versa?
Otherwise applying such an exemption only to sex workers but not farm, restaurant and other workers could pressure some into the industry by choice perhaps, but a coerced choice resulting from Canadian law giving the sex worker a privileged protection not applied to other workers.