Rights Not Rescue: An Open Letter to the Salvation Army

September 24, 2009

Dear Salvation Army:

Vancouver’s sex workers are distressed and angry over your ‘The Truth isn’t Sexy’
anti-trafficking campaign. Sex workers are appalled that you never consulted the sex
worker community before launching this highly offensive campaign. Research has
repeatedly found that the involvement of sex workers is critical to the success of antitrafficking
campaigns.

Anti-trafficking initiatives are critically important, but grossly inflating the level of
trafficking and treating most female sex workers as trafficked “sex slaves” does
nothing to improve sex worker safety—it only exacerbates their stigma and
marginalization.

The sex worker community and its allies urgently ask that you end “The Truth Isn’t
Sexy” campaign. Equally, we urge the public not to contribute to this fundamentally
misguided and destructive campaign.

The following outlines our specific concerns about the nature and intent of your
campaign.

Your campaign perpetuates myths about the lives of sex workers that will only
jeopardize the safety of its most vulnerable members. It repeats widely debunked
claims and inaccurate statistics about the nature of sex work and the extent of sex
trafficking and needlessly escalates public fears about the sex industry. Indeed, your
campaign website itself is a bewildering mix of lies and half-truths
(www.thetruthisntsexy.ca).

You wrongly conflate trafficking with sex work. Sex work is the exchange of money for
sex, while trafficking is the coerced migration of someone through the use of force,
threat of violence, physical or psychological abuse, abuse of authority, fraud, debt
bondage, or deception. Conflating sex work and trafficking leads to policies and
enforcement strategies that endanger workers and violate their rights.
We note that this is already happening in Canada. For example, there have been
recent raids in Halifax, Ottawa, Grand Prairie, Vancouver, Winnipeg, London,
Hamilton, Barrie, and Calgary. In most cases, these raids have resulted in very few
“rescues” of trafficked women because the majority of those arrested in the raids turn
out to be legal Canadian citizens or permanent residents. We believe these raids have
both a racist and anti-immigrant character because they target vulnerable minorities
and immigrant workers, who have limited resources or are subject to visa restrictions.
Following such raids, many of these workers lose a safe working environment and can
end up in the often dangerous street trade.

The raids themselves are highly intimidating and traumatizing for the workers.
Imagine large numbers of uniformed police officers kicking down the doors, entering
the premises in high alert with their guns drawn, forcing everyone to the floor, and
handcuffing them. The “rescued victims” are frequently treated as criminals—they are
arrested, detained, and even deported, and few are provided with support services.
We also are greatly concerned about the validity of the statistics you use to support
your campaign. On your website, you cite as fact some shockingly high numbers of
trafficking victims. But are there really 4 million women and children enslaved in the
global sex trade, 27 million slave labourers of all sorts worldwide, and 250,000
“slaves” in North America alone?

We know that sex trafficking is a serious crime, and we also know that a wide range of
factors makes it difficult to detect or prevent trafficking. Global estimates of trafficking
victims are often no better than “guesstimates” and can be grossly over-inflated, often
to fit a pre-ordained political agenda. When researchers try to verify such numbers, a
different story often emerges.

For example, a highly respected Cambodian study refuted the common estimate of
80,000 to 100,000 trafficked women and children in that country via a statistical
estimate based on actual counts. Only 2,488 trafficked persons were found. A study of
Vietnamese migrants in Cambodia found that only 6 of 100 women had been duped
and the rest knew they would work in a brothel and were going willingly. In Canada,
the RCMP estimates that 600 women and children are trafficked into Canada each year
for the sex trade, and 200 people are trafficked into Canada for other forms of forced
labour.

Equally, we are alarmed that you choose to repeat the false claim that major events
like the Olympics bring an increase in sex trafficking to meet the demand of tourists
and spectators. Such claims were previously made in regard to the 2004 Athens
Summer Games and the 2006 World Cup in Germany. For instance, about 20,000
forced prostitutes were anticipated for the 2004 Summer Olympics in Athens, but only
181 trafficked persons were actually reported in Greece for all of 2004. An estimated
40,000 forced prostitutes were expected in Germany for the 2006 World Cup, but they
failed to show up.

In June, a major 150-page report thoroughly debunked the supposed link between
increased trafficking and the 2010 Olympics. The report, Human Trafficking, Sex Work
Safety and the 2010 Games, warned that ill-informed assumptions about 2010 and
trafficking may actually endanger sex workers. The real concern is that Games-related
street closures and the planned security regime may displace sex workers into more
dangerous and isolated areas, in effort to “clean up the streets.” The report echoed
an earlier 2009 brief from the Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women, which found
that “an increase of trafficking in persons into forced prostitution does not occur
around sporting events.” Further, the RCMP has stated that there is no evidence to
suggest an increase in human trafficking during the Games (Vancouver Sun, January
7, 2009).

We are horrified by your campaign’s images of sex workers. Your posters of women
being abused, a young Asian girl being kicked on the street, and an under-aged sex
worker being stomped on the head are extreme and sensational. They themselves
operate as a form of exploitation because you use them to capitalize on society’s fear
of the sex industry to raise money. No one supports the exploitation of any person,
but portraying all sex workers as abused victims and slaves essentially puts workers
beyond human understanding and does absolutely nothing to stem the exploitation
that does happen in the sex industry.

Your campaign asks your members to set up “prayer stations” in areas where street
sex work takes place, as well as at massage parlours, exotic show lounges, and police
stations. Suggestions for prayer stations include displaying a bloody and stained dress
alongside a cracked mirror to represent a sex worker, juxtaposed with a new white
dress reflected in a full undamaged mirror to represent a “rescued” worker. The sex
worker community strongly objects to your use of these highly offensive images
especially when used in a campaign that will never protect them.

To reiterate, the sex worker community urges you to end your “Truth Isn’t Sexy”
campaign. In any future efforts, begin by first involving affected stakeholders and then
commit to applying an evidence-based approach to prevent trafficking. The most
important focus now should be to ensure the safety and full human rights of sex
workers before, during, and after the 2010 Games. They deserve rights, not rescue.
Thank you for your consideration.

Sincerely,

FIRST
Feminists advocating for the rights of sex workers and decriminalization of prostitution

(Contact: Esther Shannon, emls@shaw.ca, or: http://www.firstadvocates.org/contact)

Sources:
Measuring the Number of Trafficked Women and Children in Cambiodia: A Direct Observation
Field Study, Part III of a Series. Thomas M. Steinfat, University of Miami/Royal University of
Phnom Penh. Sponsored by USAID. 6 October 2003.
http://preventhumantrafficking.org/reading/measuring-the-number-of-traff...
in-cam.html
Human Trafficking, Sex Work Safety and the 2010 Games: Assessments and Recommendations.
By Raven Bowen and Esther Shannon, for Vancouver’s Sex Industry Worker Safety Action Group
(SIWSAG). June 10, 2009. http://www.straight.com/files/pdf/sextraffic2010games.pdf
Trafficking in Persons and the 2010 Olympics. Global Alliance Against Traffic in Women.
February 2009. http://www.chabdai.org/canadaoffice_files/Trafficking in Persons and the 2010
Olympics.pdf