Free Invisible Chains by Benjamin Perrin

“owner,” who expected to reap more profit from her body. His venture did not succeed. The countless acts of rape that Katya had endured from the age of nine to her midthirties had made her so volatile and hard to control that her trafficker dumped her outside a hospital in Edmonton in 2005.
    In addition to being diagnosed with schizophrenia, Katya was suffering from severe depression. She still walks with a noticeable limp,a persistent reminder of the brutality she suffered over much of her life. The treatment prescribed for victims like Katya is almost identical to that for victims of extended and substantial torture.
    â€œImagine you’ve been kidnapped when you’re nine years old, in one of the developing countries, and then sold to a developed country,” suggests Tracey Campbell, a consultant with Alberta Employment and Immigration who’s assisting Katya in her recovery. “Imagine the damage it would do, how devastating it would be, and how much work a psychologist would have to do for you.”
    Three years after her release, Katya was continuing to improve. She completed a course in English as a Second Language (ESL) and began to dream of becoming a nurse. The first independent choice she is making in her adult life is to care for others.
    â€œThe humiliation experienced by the victims is deep and profound,” says Loly Rico. “At one point they felt used, they were raped. But some begin to believe that this is their role as women. And for them to change that role is very hard.”
    Rico has had difficulty finding qualified counsellors to assist foreign victims of human trafficking, in particular professionals who speak languages other than English. Some victims resist counselling because they want to “forget about that life,” an understandable reaction but one that delays their long-term rehabilitation.
    Mumbi—a story of resistance, courage, and survival
    Like many young women in Kenya, Mumbi was eager to travel and work overseas. In 2001, she accepted an offer that proved too good to be true—help with her travel costs to Canada. On arrival, Mumbi was locked inside a Montreal-area hotel room and told that she would be sold for sex to repay the “investment.”
    The traffickers tried to break Mumbi’s resistance. Keeping her confined, they forced her to watch pornographic movies, a “grooming process” used to eradicate sexual inhibitions and “train” victims for the services they would be expected to perform. Withholding food,Mumbi’s captors kept up the pressure for four days while she resisted their orders despite threats of severe physical abuse. Then a chance at freedom presented itself. In a moment of inattention by her captors, Mumbi escaped and made her way to a women’s shelter, where she sought comfort and assistance.
    Soon after Mumbi arrived at the shelter, however, staff became concerned about men lurking nearby in parked cars and telephone callers demanding to know Mumbi’s whereabouts. For her safety, Mumbi was moved to another location and later granted refugee status that permitted her to remain in Canada. The situation in Kenya was too perilous for her to return.
    Although cause for joy and celebration, Mumbi’s escape from traffickers in sexual services is atypical. Linguistic and cultural barriers, combined with isolation, keep many foreign women trapped in operations where they are exploited “under the radar” of law enforcement agencies and society at large.
    In September 2009, police in Edmonton uncovered a human trafficking operation at the “Sachi Professional Massage and Spa” where, they alleged, three women from Fiji and one from China were “forced to eat, sleep and perform sex acts for money in the same room.” Many massage parlours in the Vancouver area cater only to an Asian clientele, promoting themselves exclusively in a foreign language and hanging up if a