Good afternoon.
My name is Jakki Buckeridge. My pronouns are she and her.
To piggyback on what my colleague, Raman, was saying, Indus' commitment to anti-human trafficking has spanned over a decade. We've been involved at all levels of government in developing a Peel-centred care pathway for survivors of human trafficking. We're active members of the Peel Human Trafficking Service Providers Committee, which collaborates across the region on the elimination of human trafficking through education, advocacy, empowerment, and the restoration of victims' and survivors' rights.
Ontario attracts nearly 50% of all international students coming to study in Canada. Of the international students who choose Canada as their place of study, more than 50% are from India and China.
There were two main reasons that international students reported for choosing Canada particularly. Number one, they felt that this was a non-discriminatory country; that was about 78% of those students. Number two, they felt that it was safe; that was 78% of those students.
At Sheridan College alone, international students represent over 30% of the student population. Sheridan has over 22,000 students, 6,800 of whom are international. Campuses for Sheridan are located in Brampton, Mississauga and our sister region, Halton.
Of all human trafficking in Canada, 60% happens in the GTA in every town, bus stand and retail store—even in our own backyards. One in three cases of human trafficking involves another crime. In the last six years, police-reported cases of human trafficking increased by 200%.
In addition to supporting the needs of sex-trafficked individuals, we at Indus recognize and aim for the elimination of all forms of human trafficking, including forced labour, sex trafficking, domestic servitude, organ removal, debt bondage, forced begging, child soldiers and forced marriage.
It was in 2020 that Indus expanded this commitment by leveraging our experience in supporting newcomers and international students with the generous funding support from WAGE. We have developed this survivor-informed tool kit for service providers to identify and respond, from a cultural lens, to foreign-born individuals' being labour-trafficked. On February 28, we launched our prototype tool kit to over 80 service providers in the region to further inform the tool kit, to raise awareness on the issue and on gaps in service, and to build collaborative support for survivors.
I'm very happy to be here today to lend our perspective.