A Critical Analysis on R. v. Orr in Understanding the Management of Human Trafficking in Immigration and Refugee Claims in Canada

Labour exploitation is a form of human trafficking, which is a serious offence in Canada. More and more immigrants, refugees and migrant workers are vulnerable to labour exploitation. To further understand this issue on how the federal government manages such cases of human trafficking, a qualitative analysis was conducted by looking at the effectiveness of anti-human trafficking policies and practices to determine whether they are contributing more harm than good to the vulnerable population, or vice versa. By analyzing the significant R v. Orr case, it is observed that permit programs lack supporting services in monitoring the living of immigrants. In addition, there is an insufficient amount of victim services for exploited persons to receive protection. Immigration officers also do not acquire the technique to correctly identify potential victims at the borders. Legally, victims suffered from great loss when going against the accused on trials with huge financial costs, and legal officials tend to determine the guilt of the accused based on the credibility of the victims and not the traffickers. Reforms are required in improving the policies and practices to reach the goal of providing welfare to immigrants and preventing them to be trafficked. Increasing the amount and geographic coverage of victim services is one of the suggested improvements, and the current Open Work Permit (OWP) is an alternative permit program in benefiting new immigrants. Future research could focus on the anti-sex trafficking policies, or looking at the limitations of OWP in combating human trafficking