Down the street from a group home in Moncton, someone waits for the young residents to come out for their free time.
This person knows what time youth in care of the provincial government are allowed to leave the home, according to Maggie.
Maggie is a support worker at Community of Hope in Moncton, a service for victims of human trafficking. CBC News has agreed not to use her full name for safety reasons.
Human trafficking means that someone works to gain control over another person and exploits them for material gain.
N.B. group home youth targeted for human trafficking
A trafficker will learn over time what the youth wants most and make a point of giving it to them — to show the youth they can be trusted, Maggie said.
“When the teenagers are out, they’ll be like, ‘Hey, you want a cigarette? … I’ll take you to the mall and get you some new clothes’,” Maggie said in an interview.
For a young person who hasn’t had a stable home life, or has been moved away from their home to live in care, Maggie said this person can offer a sense of safety and connection.
She said the person will work in a calculated way to meet the youth’s needs — and soon, what is, in fact, a dangerous situation begins to feel like safety.
“Giving them gifts, meeting all those survival needs — it’s definitely very easy for [youth] to fall into that trap.”
The risk to group home youth is known to police in New Brunswick.
In a case heard by the Court of King’s Bench earlier this year, an officer in the Saint John Police Department testified about the scope of the issue.
A summary of the investigator’s testimony is in a published decision issued in March by Justice Danys R.X. Delaquis.
The officer “explained that human trafficking is ‘prevalent’ and currently under police investigation in respect of individuals who have associations with and/or target group homes,” that decision noted.
The risk to youth in care is known to several police forces in New Brunswick. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
“He described human trafficking as the ‘modern day slavery.’ In essence, youth cannot appreciate the risk, and are unable to realize the danger, due to drug use. Youth do not have protection, do not return, and end up in other cities.”
The issue is also on the radar of the RCMP.
“Police have investigated reports that youth in these environments have been victimized through sexual exploitation or involved in situations of human trafficking,” the force said in a statement.
Sgt. Holly Erb, the New Brunswick RCMP’s sexual violence co-ordinator, said the youth often don’t realize the situation they’re in.
“They don’t see themselves as victims,” Erb said.
Sgt. Holly Erb says it’s important for institutions and services working with youth to collaborate on prevention. (Hadeel Ibrahim/CBC)
“It’s not until things are outside of their control that they recognize then there’s a need for help.”
Erb said the best way to look out for, or prevent, human trafficking would be to increase education and collaboration among the different agencies that work with vulnerable populations.
That would include police, the Social Development Department or any sort of social assistance, and even teachers, health professionals and community agencies.
“If we can increase that education in the public, then we can increase the amount of support that we can give and hopefully prevent human trafficking from occurring,” she said.
Ashley MacDonald works at YWCA Brave in Moncton with youth who are at risk of trafficking.
She has also heard from survivors about group homes being targeted.
MacDonald cautions that this doesn’t mean that all group home youth are automatically less safe, but that there are several risk factors inherent to that setting.
“I imagine young people in group homes are not super happy to be there, right? They’d probably rather have their perfect life play out,” MacDonald said.
“Instead they’re living out of … their home community, away from their family systems. Maybe they had to change schools. That’s stressful.”
Ashley MacDonald says YWCA Brave, a program for youth at risk of human trafficking, regularly works with youth living in group homes. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
Connecting with the trafficker will typically feel good to the youth at first, according to MacDonald.
“What we see nine times out of 10 is what’s called a Romeo pimp, and the person, youth or otherwise, thinks that they’re falling in love,” she said.
“It’s not scary. … It’s like, ‘Tell me about you.’ So it seems kind, and maybe it’s nice to be asked how your day was and … tell your story a bit.”
Social media has given traffickers yet another avenue to target youth, MacDonald said.
That’s something Mel Kennah has seen as well.
Kennah, now executive director of Youth Impact Jeunesse, has worked with youth in care for decades.
Mel Kennah says traffickers can take advantage of a youth’s need for connection when they’ve had ‘fractured’ or ‘interrupted’ relationships with adults. (Submitted by Mel Kennah)
He recalled working with a teenage girl in care who was receiving messages online from older men — but she didn’t seem to understand why Kennah was concerned.
“She was swimming in very dangerous waters, you know, at times, and had no idea that there was a shark in the pool with her,” Kennah said.
He said youth in care are more vulnerable to trafficking because of “fractured” or “interrupted” relationships with the adults they depend on.
“Every young person needs an adult in their life that, that has a strong connection with them … looking out for their best interests,” Kennah said.
“And unfortunately, not everybody does, at least not all the time in their developmental years. So that would not be unusual for the young people coming into [care].”
Back at Community of Hope, community ambassador Liz Hawkes said the average age of a trafficking victim is 13.
“Unfortunately, the younger they are, the more money they do bring in, so they have become a target,” Hawkes said.
Experts warn that trafficking often doesn’t start off looking dangerous or violent.
Instead, Maggie said, it’s common for traffickers to use “love bombing” to win over a victim by showering them with gifts.
Over time, the trafficker’s relationship with a youth will turn exploitative, according to Liz Hawkes at Community of Hope. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
In other cases, Maggie said, the trafficker will “brand” their victim with a tattoo.
“They don’t recognize there’s a problem because they’re already, you know, emotionally involved,” she said.
Maggie said some victims she works with will refer to their trafficker as their “boyfriend” when they first show up at Community of Hope.
But Hawkes said the relationship becomes exploitative as the trafficker demands the youth pay them back for the gifts.
“The trafficker will then say, ‘Well, look at all I’ve done for you, now you owe me,’” Hawkes said.
Even when someone understands the relationship is exploitative, MacDonald said, it can still take time for them to leave.
“I’ve heard anywhere from five to 20 attempts to leave trafficking before you’re actually out of it,” she said.
After leaving a relationship where they are highly controlled, she said, the person may still make decisions based on fear of their trafficker.
Kennah said he’s seen youth victims “shut down” or be fearful about decision-making.
Supporting youth victims to practise decision-making about their life is central to recovery, service providers say. (Michael Heenan/CBC)
That’s why MacDonald says YWCA Brave encourages youth in recovery to regain control over their decision-making.
“When I meet young people, I always say, ‘you’re leading the ship. So where do we go from here?’” MacDonald said.
She encourages group home staff, parents and other caregivers to build strong relationships with young people in their care and to make it clear that the youth can depend on them no matter what.
“One of the best things we could do is just consistently reinforce how valuable they are.”
Canadian Human Trafficking Hotline: 1-833-900-1010 – Available across Canada, 24/7
EDITOR’S NOTE: They are among society’s most vulnerable: children who experience traumatic instability and end up in government care. In this series called Left Behind, the CBC Atlantic investigative team explores the challenges and outcomes through the eyes of people who lived through this and those trying to help them.
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