Catholic Women Mobilize Against Human Trafficking

JOAN LUCAS, Special Contributor

Published: September 23, 2004

Human trafficking has become a modern-day form of slavery all over the world. Traffickers are often connected to organized crime and accustomed to avoiding law enforcement. Victims are young children, teenagers, and grown men and women.

Approximately 800,000 to 900,000 victims annually are trafficked across international borders worldwide. Between 18,000 and 20,000 of those victims are trafficked into the United States, according to the U.S. State Department.

Victims are subjected to force, fraud or coercion for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor, slavery, peonage or servitude in industries such as agriculture, prostitution, domestic service or forced marriage. Modern day slavery commonly involves the use of physical, psychological and/or sexual violence by slaveholders who extract enormous profits from the labor of people seeking a better life for themselves and their families. And, yes, babies are trafficked and they are often killed for their organs. Runaways here in the United States often become victims of trafficking.

The U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) states that some of the root causes of human trafficking include poverty, economic deterioration, conflict, population displacement, post-conflict political transition, lack of female education and economic opportunity, natural disasters, discrimination, and the low value placed on women and children.

What is the United States doing to combat human trafficking? The United States government’s approach to combating trafficking is based on prevention, protection and assistance for victims, and the prosecution of traffickers. In 2000, Congress passed the Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA), which provides a means for non-citizen victims in the United States to apply for a special visa and other benefits so that they can safely and securely rebuild their lives. This “T” visa was established to give trafficking victims temporary status in the United States.

Other U.S. agencies involved in combating human trafficking are the Department of Justice, Department of Health and Human Services, USAID, and the Department of Labor.

The Catholic Church is also involved in this effort to combat human trafficking through the Migration and Refugee Services Office of the

USCCB, a coalition of Catholic organizations, Catholic Relief Services and Catholic Charities. The Vatican has issued strong statements of opposition to trafficking. Other local initiatives have been made through church agencies and institutions. The Georgia Bulletin recently carried an article on Covenant House, an agency chosen to combat human trafficking. Tapestri, Inc., an immigrant and refugee coalition, is actively involved in this issue. The Office of Refugee Resettlement also recently initiated a public Rescue and Restore Campaign to increase the number of identified trafficking victims.

It is very disappointing to learn that the opposition to trafficking in the United States has yielded so few results. Sometimes because of the covert nature of trafficking the help of ordinary citizens is needed to identify situations that may be related to trafficking.

If you observe such a situation, call the Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline at 1-888-373-8888.

Some of the other things we can all do are:

—Pray for an end to trafficking. Ask your pastor to include this in the prayers of the faithful.

—Educate yourself and then help raise awareness of this horrendous worldwide problem against the human rights of others, especially women and children. Be an advocate for justice. Know that this evil is not only in foreign capitals, it is here in our cities, in large and small towns, in brothels tucked away in affluent neighborhoods, migrant worker trailer parks, strip clubs and massage parlors. Last year over 50,000 women and girls from 49 countries were brought to the United States, most to provide sexual services for the profit of their traffickers. One third of these were under the age of 17.

—Write your state legislators concerning this issue and ask what is happening here in Georgia to combat human trafficking.

—Engage a speaker from a local immigration office, Catholic Charities office or a state legislator for men’s and women’s parish meetings to speak about human trafficking.

—Join a faith-based community or a coalition addressing this issue.

—Support the heroic efforts of those who are striving to put an end to this modern atrocity around the world.

In a recent letter on the occasion of the international conference, “Twenty-First Century Slavery–The Human Rights Dimension to Trafficking in Human Beings,” Pope John Paul II said:

“The trade in human persons constitutes a shocking offence against human dignity and a grave violation of fundamental human rights. Already the Second Vatican Council had pointed to ‘slavery, prostitution, the selling of women and children, and disgraceful working conditions where people are treated as instruments of gain rather than free and responsible persons,’ as ‘infamies,’ which ‘poison human society, debase their perpetrators’ and constitute ‘a supreme dishonor to the Creator’ (Gaudium et Spes #27). Such situations are an affront to fundamental values which are shared by all cultures and peoples, values rooted in the very nature of the human person.”

Joan Lucas, a member of Holy Family Church, Marietta, represented the Atlanta Archdiocesan Council of Catholic Women at a seminar “Against Human Trafficking” held in Baltimore July 20-22, sponsored by the Office of Migration and Refugee Services, U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, and the National Council of Catholic Women. The seminar presented the current picture of trafficking in the United States; addressed legal and labor issues; and envisioned models of parish and community responses. She has also attended a statewide meeting on the topic. To contact her, call (770) 953-3946 or e-mail Eluc@mindspring.com.