I can't speak specifically to the TIP report that has come out of New Zealand most recently and how it's being connected with trafficking, but I can say that since decriminalization was implemented in New Zealand in 2003, sex workers have a lot more freedom to report violence in the workplace and to have some kind of recourse when they experience violence.
We've heard stories, for example, of sex workers who have been able to officially, through courts or tribunals, report sexual harassment from people working in their workplace or from bosses. I remember one news piece of a sex worker who was successful in that case. We also know sex workers are more able to work together in public spaces, which is really important.
The interesting thing about New Zealand is there are a ton of studies, which I submitted to the Library of Parliament so you can read them if you're interested, and a lot of those studies actually demonstrate how much more safe sex workers are able to feel and how many more safety measures they're able to implement.
It's important to look to those studies. It's not a perfect model by any means, predominantly because migrant workers are still criminalized and that allows for a lot of anti-trafficking rhetoric and policy and might impact on the way those trafficking numbers look in a TIP report, because migrant sex workers are still not able. The immigration laws are not necessarily changed.
In Canada, what we asked for, along with the removal of sex work from criminal laws, is the removal of the IRPR regulation that doesn't allow migrant sex workers to work in the sex industry.
There's a ton of research, peer-reviewed research, that I'd be very happy to send your way. As I said, I have submitted them to the Library of Parliament and hopefully they will be considered for the report you produce.