Hong Kong man who brought Filipino maid to Canada jailed for 18 months

A Hong Kong man who brought his Filipino maid with his family when they moved to Canada, continuing to pay her under the terms of her SAR contract, has been sentenced to 18 months’ jail for human trafficking.

Prosecutors hope that the precedent-setting sentence, handed down in the British Columbia Supreme Court in Vancouver on Tuesday, will deter other would-be traffickers. Franco Orr Yiu-kwan, who was led from court in handcuffs, continues to deny wrongdoing and plans to appeal.

Prosecutors said Orr kept Sarmiento as a virtual slave, forcing her to work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for almost two years. But Orr, 50, claimed that the maid, Leticia Sarmiento, begged that he bring her to Canada when the family moved to Vancouver in September 2008.

“This is the first conviction in Canada for an offence of human trafficking under section 118 of the Immigration and Refugee Protection Act,” said prosecutor Peter LaPrairie in an interview prior to sentencing. “So yes it does create a precedent. Deterrence is always a consideration for would be offenders.”

Orr was also convicted in June of one immigration offence and two labour offences, with six-month terms for those charges to be served concurrently. Orr’s partner, Nicole Huen Oi-ling, 36, was acquitted of all three offences.

Orr and Huen, whose three children were cared for by Sarmiento, said they acted only in the maid’s interests. Their lawyer, Nicholas Preovolos, questioned the severity of the trafficking charge, which carried a potential life sentence.

At the sentencing hearing, Preovolos asked for a conditional sentence, while prosecutors sought five to six years’ jail.