After a case of human trafficking was discovered in Saskatchewan late last month, the hospitality industry is looking at what it can do to make sure that doesn't happen again.
With business back on the upswing following the pandemic, industry leaders are hoping that more business means more eyes on their conditions to see if anyone is being abused.
Hospitality Saskatchewan President and CEO Jim Bence said they've been doing an awareness program since before the pandemic.
"With our organization, we did start pre-pandemic with an awareness program that we rolled out to operators, our many members in the province, just to put human trafficking on the radar for many operators. Really, it wasn't something that they had thought about or even knew that was occurring in Saskatchewan."
"So, what to look for if you're working in a hotel or in a restaurant, you know that someone may be a victim and whether one of the things that you could recognize, you know, like those potential red flags that you could warrant further investigation or maybe even a call to law enforcement.”
Bence details some of the signs people can watch for in case human trafficking and abuse are occurring.
“Oftentimes the victims, when we're talking about human trafficking and the sexual exploitation of young persons, the questions are: what's the environment that they're in? Who is accompanying them? Do they have any documentation? Oftentimes they won't be allowed to have even a cell phone. You know, it's really about control and manipulation.”
“So, if you see somebody that looks to be in distress, avoids eye contact, is usually with a handler or somebody who's really victimizing the person. Oftentimes it can be intuitive, but just keeping an eye out for those signs and you may see that somebody's in distress.”
"Sometimes it can be innocent enough, but then in other times if you're starting to pay attention to those signs, you can talk to other people in the organization."