Speakers call human trafficking a global problem

Published: 2006-02-15

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Trafficking in humans -- for slave labor or the sex industry -- is a global problem, speakers told a national conference of Catholic social ministry leaders Feb. 14. Mary DeLorey, a Catholic Relief Services policy and advocacy official, said that by conservative estimates victims of human trafficking number somewhere between 700,000 and 2 million people around the world and they are "primarily women and children." "It's a justice issue, it's a human rights issue. It's a mission that belongs to all of us," said Sister Mary Ellen Dougherty of the U.S. bishops' Migration and Refugee Services. A member of the School Sisters of Notre Dame, Sister Mary Ellen is manager for outreach, education and technical assistance in MRS' human trafficking program. Leading a workshop on the causes and impacts of human trafficking, the two women told the group that there is a need to raise people's awareness about the extent of human trafficking, its largely hidden nature and ways to combat it.

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