The District Social Services Administration Boards of Northern Ontario are seeing what can be done to combat human trafficking.
The issue was one of several that came up when staff and boards members met in Sault Ste. Marie at the Northern Ontario Service Deliverers Association (NOSDA) meeting.
Mark King, the chair of the Nipissing DSSAB was at the meeting and said he was “absolutely flabbergasted” to learn that some of the victims of human trafficking were girls 12 to 14 years in age.
King says the NOSDA members discussed how to identify cases of human trafficking and get this group of people to help because he says there are tremendous support systems out there.
The various DSSABs want to address the issue because King says some clients of the various DSSABs are victims of human trafficking.
“These people are struggling to make ends meet and a lot of people will do anything to make ends meet,” he said.
King says he knows of at least one person under Nipissing DSSAB who has become a victim of human trafficking.
King calls what’s happening a deadly situation.
“These young girls probably come out of families that are dysfunctional,” he said.
“They either end up on the street or get involved in nasty circumstances where they are used.”
King says the members at NOSDA talked about how they can identify cases of human trafficking and then get help for the women in an effort to minimize human trafficking activity in Northern Ontario.
