The Canadian government on Tuesday launched the Blue Blindfold Campaign, to urge Canadians "not to close their eyes" to the crime of human trafficking.

The ad campaign run in partnership with the Canadian Crime Stoppers Association, involves radio, television, newspapers and educational brochures that tell people how to spot and report possible trafficking cases, the Globe and Mail reported.

"Some of these images you will see in this campaign are disturbing and uncomfortable," Public Safety Minister Vic Toews told a news conference in Winnipeg. "This is because this crime is disturbing and uncomfortable and it needs to be stopped."

Though there are no solid figures on trafficking, Perrin, a professor at the University of British Columbia, said an RCMP estimate suggests 800 people are trafficked into Canada each year.

The new initiative involves no new money, according to a statement from Public Safety Canada. The money will be taken out of the $120,000 provided to Crime Stoppers under an agreement funded in the 2007 budget, it said.

The Canadian government announced its latest trafficking initiative as it continues to grapple with how to treat migrants who land on the country's shores seeking refugee status. A boat carrying almost 500 people from Sri Lanka arrived earlier this summer, and another boat is reportedly on its way to Canada.

Toews has suggested the asylum seekers could be part of a human smuggling operation.

Human smuggling can often turn into trafficking if passengers are unable to make the payments for the journey. In those cases, they are forced to stay working for the smugglers after arriving at their destination.

The Blue Blindfold ad campaign is being launched one year after the Crime Stoppers Association opened a hotline for the public to report tips about potential trafficking and almost three months after Parliament approved a Conservative MP's private member's bill setting a minimum jail term of five years for anyone found guilty of trafficking in humans, the Globe and Mail said.