SWAN launches ‘You Choose: Seek Justice as a Migrant Sex Worker’ for Victims & Survivors of Crime Week 2022
SWAN has created an interactive campaign called ‘‘You Choose: Seek Justice as a Migrant Sex Worker.
This campaign allows you to experience what it’s like to try to access justice as a migrant sex worker.
Migrant sex workers experience criminalization not only through our federal sex work laws (the Protection of Communities and Exploited Persons Act), but also through the Immigration and Refugee Protection Regulations (IRPR) which prohibit temporary residents (people in Canada without permanent residence or citizenship) from engaging in the sex industry. If they are found to be working in sex work, they can be arrested, detained, and/or deported.
We created this campaign to illustrate the widespread systemic barriers migrant sex workers face when they experience violence and attempt to seek support or recourse from law enforcement.
We invite you to step into the shoes of Su-Lin, whose experiences are based on a combination of stories im/migrant sex workers have shared with SWAN over the past 20 years.
SWAN gratefully acknowledges that this project was funded by the Government of Canada’s Department of Justice. Thank you also to Ryan Thomson, the designer of this tool, for all your work to make this campaign a reality!