Trapped between the borderlines

11 June 2012
Thane Burnett
The Sudbury Star (Canada)

POIPET, Cambodia--In the border land, there seems to be two clear but hard choices.

Either you somehow make your way from Cambodia to the promised land of Thailand to scratch out a better life through hard work, or you cross over into a brutal new world of forced labour and slavery.

Though both options begin with the same rush of desperation.

All combined, those who find themselves in developed countries -- including Canada -- ship back more than $300 billion to their families in developing nations.

Here on the impoverished divide between Cambodia and Thailand, thousands of transient workers jump constantly back and forth across the line. Some go the legal route, others trek through the dense jungle -- in some cases, finding a common currency with official patrols that should be guarding the line, rather than profiting from it.

Among the daily commuters here in Cambodia is an elderly grandmother, who morning and night makes her way to and from bitter work on the Thai sugar cane fields.

You haven't heard about the misery of need until you've walked in her footsteps through the thick bush that's 60 meters to the border.

Her husband is all but blind. Among the assorted children they have to support is their young granddaughter who is suspected of carrying HIV, which also killed both her parents.

The old woman is also sick, but must still work in hopes of somehow, some day, paying off a debt owed to the community. It's less than $200 for rice and land, but the family will likely be indebted for life.

Every day, she hopes for a better tomorrow for all her children -- though all are starting their journey already in debt. And as much as it is the desperate, it's often the weak and as it is the desperate, it's often the weak and most vulnerable who are the first to be trapped across borderlines.

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1 in 10 cases of global human trafficking are sex trade cases

20% increase in hazardous work among older children aged 15-17 from 2004-2008

59 human trafficking cases are currently before Canadian courts, involving 98 individuals accused of human trafficking

56 cases have occurred in Canada iwhere human trafficking charges were laid and the accused have been convicted of human trafficking or related charges

23 victims have been saved from the hands of traffickers in Canada

9 years in prison was handed to Ferenc Domotor in April in Canada's largest human trafficking case

Human trafficking: Putting or keeping a person in an exploitative situation he or she can't get out of. The person is not free and can be exploited for private profit over and over again.

Domotor will actually only serve 4.5 years, due to time already served for pleading guilty in Hamilton, Ont.