Fiji-Canada sex slave victims ‘defrauded’

Two Fiji women rescued last week from sex slavery in Canada were defrauded by people posing as immigration consultants offering employment opportunities, say Canadian police.

Edmonton detective Dave Schening said at a news conference after the rescue last week “it appears the women, who all have permanent resident status in Canada, came to Edmonton of their own free will from other parts of the country, but were deceived into thinking they were coming to work in a legitimate massage establishment”.

"There are people in major cities in Canada who have ads in foreign newspapers in those cities," Schening said.

"They answer the ads and are led to believe they are coming to a new job in a massage parlour that pays very well. They are put to work and very quickly realise it is more than massage, it is the sex trade."

“It appears the three women had not been in Canada long when they answered the ads. They appear to come from traditional, honour-orientated families which made it easy to control them through fear and threats.”

The Fiji government has so far said that their Canadian counterparts have not contacted them.

Former Fiji Trade Consular to Canada Ashwant Dwivedi told FijiLive the two women were offered lucrative deals in terms of pay and accommodation and other benefits.

“Things turned out to be different than the perspective they were given when in Fiji. The two woman had everything they owned in just a suitcase,” Dwiwedi said.

The two women are currently being cared for by the Canadian police.

“I understand that these two victims of forced sex offence have been kept in the administration of enforcement officers. There are also reports that the Salvation Army is going to provide them shelter,” he said.

A sting operation by Canadian authorities led to the arrest of the owners of the massage parlour which was allegedly keeping girls as sex slaves. Subsequently, three women, two from Fiji and one from China were rescued.

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