Good afternoon, Madam Chair.
Good afternoon, honourable members of the House of Commons and the Standing Committee on the Status of Women.
My name is Alexis Graham, and I am responsible for social and discretionary policy and programs at IRCC. Joining me is my colleague, Sarah Hayward, from the operations sector.
I am pleased to be talking to you about an important issue that affects the vulnerability of individuals, and as specifically regards my department—Immigration, Refugees and Citizenship Canada, IRCC—the vulnerability of immigrants. I am talking about human trafficking.
IRCC plays a small but important role in the governmental architecture associated with this serious issue of trafficking in persons. Specifically, the department is responsible for helping protect out-of-status foreign national victims of trafficking.
This role has been made more visible since the Government of Canada's implementation of the horizontal national strategy to combat human trafficking in 2019. The strategy, led by Public Safety Canada, is composed of five pillars. Protection is the pillar under which IRCC's work falls; however, IRCC has, in fact, been involved in this protection role since 2006. The way we carry out this responsibility is to issue victims a special temporary resident permit. We call these permits VTIP TRPs—forgive the acronym—and they are issued at an officer's discretion.
VTIP TRPs are critical in helping victims secure immigration status in order to give them the possibility to decide on their next steps. This enables victims to escape the influence of their traffickers and start their recovery from the physical and mental trauma they may have experienced. They provide access to health care under the interim federal health program, including coverage for medical and psychological services. They also allow victims to apply for an open work permit.
These special permits may also be issued to victims' dependent family members in Canada. It is important to note that it is not necessary for victims to testify against their trafficker to benefit from this measure.
An initial VTIP TRP is typically issued for a period of 180 days and is fee exempt. A victim may also apply for a subsequent TRP if they wish to remain in Canada for longer. This can be issued for up to three years.
They can also apply for permanent residence, including on humanitarian and compassionate grounds, or claim asylum if they're in need of refugee protection.
Victims are generally referred to IRCC by law enforcement or non-governmental organizations, but they can also self-identify.
IRCC has processes already in place to ensure that applications made by victims of human trafficking are easily identified and are quickly assigned to an officer. These applications are also processed on a priority basis, taking precedence over applications of a less urgent nature.
IRCC also conducts administrative investigations to identify facilitators of human trafficking and, thus, try to disrupt human trafficking networks. IRCC often works in close co-operation with law enforcement agencies, such as the Canada Border Services Agency, or CBSA, and the Royal Canadian Mounted Police, or RCMP.
Overall, the number of VTIP TRPs issued by the department is low; however, in recent years, numbers have been increasing. To illustrate, while fewer than 100 of these VTIP TRPs were issued per year up to and including 2018, in 2019, 238 were approved. Most recently, in 2022, 155 VTIP TRPs were provided to victims and their dependents.
In terms of client gender, more VTIP TRPs have been issued to males in recent years. From 2019 to 2022, approximately 60% of VTIP TRPs were issued to males and approximately 40% to females.
In closing, I would like to point out that IRCC continues to monitor human trafficking cases brought to its attention, and to engage with partners and stakeholders in order to ensure that the department is able to effectively carry out its mandate of protecting victims of human trafficking.
Thank you very much.