The Canadian Centre to End Human Trafficking is reaching out to migrant workers to keep them better informed of their rights and avoid potential abuses by employers.

While many workers experience a welcoming opportunity with fair pay, safe accommodation and working conditions, The Centre warns that far too many do not and instead face violence, deceit and threats.

Campaign elements in English, Spanish and French include digital advertising on social media platforms widely used by migrant workers, ads in public spaces in agricultural regions, paid advertorials in home countries and educational materials available to local service providers, religious institutions, unions and embassies.

The Centre is specifically looking to reach agricultural migrant workers directly through multilingual ads that make the messages personal to them, like “your ID belongs to you” and “your money should stay yours.”

The Centre has also created a digital toolkit to help share relevant resources with service providers, community organizations, media and others who want to help end labour trafficking.

Julia Drydyk, the organization’s executive director, tells strategy the campaign targets a really broad geography in scope, and that, to her knowledge, it’s the first of its kind directly targeting migrant workers to inform them of their rights.

“The biggest misperceptions we have is that human trafficking happens to other people who are in other countries, and involves human smuggling,” she says. “In reality, the vast majority of human trafficking we’re seeing is taking place amongst migrants entering Canada legally, and largely through our temporary foreign worker system.”

Migrant workers are tough to reach, Drydyk admits, as their movements are often very circumscribed and English often isn’t their first language. That’s why it was important to offer the campaign in other languages, such as Spanish.

“Based on research we did with migrant workers…we’ve focused heavily on Facebook engagement,” Drydyk says.

Typically, the organization focuses on pro-active annual campaigns leveraging Human Trafficking Awareness Day in February. This campaign, an extension of work from earlier in the year, coincides with the heart of the agricultural growing season.

While labour trafficking happens in many industries, it is most prevalent in the agricultural sector, hence that being the focus of OOH efforts. Regions targeted were informed by Stats Canada numbers about positive labour market impact assessments and include areas like Kelowna, B.C., Leamington, Ont., Northern Alberta and Quebec City.

However, Drydyk says labour trafficking also exists in manufacturing, hospitality and among international students.

Strategic Objectives lead the work after a competitive procurement process, leading a collaboration of agencies including Grey Canada on creative and Hotspex Media on the buy.