Soft-hearted boss or cruel abuser? Hong Kong emigrant jailed for human trafficking
Hong Kong couple thought they were doing their maid a favour by taking her to Canada, but now one of them has been jailed for human trafficking
As far as Franco Orr Yiu-kwan and his wife could see, their only crime against their Filipino maid was being "too soft-hearted".
It is Canada's first successful trafficking prosecution under immigration law as opposed to previous cases brought under the criminal code, mainly involving sex slaves.
Orr had brought maid Leticia Sarmiento with his family when they moved to Canada in 2008, continuing to pay her under the terms of her SAR contract.
Prosecutors, who said her conditions amounted to slavery, hope that the precedent-setting sentence handed down in the British Columbia Supreme Court will deter other would-be traffickers. Orr, led from court in handcuffs, plans to appeal.
The court was told that Orr and his wife, Nicole Huen Oi-ling, 36, made Sarmiento work 16 hours a day, seven days a week, for 21 months. But Orr claimed that the maid begged to be brought to Canada when the family moved to Vancouver in September 2008, and that she was allowed to come and go as she pleased.