Victims of human trafficking need more help, Catholic official says

Published: 2007-11-14

WASHINGTON (CNS) -- Although the United States has made progress in addressing human trafficking, more needs to be done to help trafficking victims, particularly children, said a U.S. Catholic official in testimony before a House committee. "From the Catholic perspective, human trafficking represents a scourge on the earth which must be eradicated," said Anastasia Brown, director of refugee programs of Migration and Refugee Services of the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops. She applauded the efforts already made to stop human trafficking, such as the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000, which Congress reauthorized in 2003 and 2005. But in her testimony before the House Judiciary Committee Oct. 31, she stressed that trafficking victims need "access to a continuum of services in order to attain self-sufficiency and restored mental and physical health." Most victims of trafficking are "commonly linked by poverty and lack of opportunity" and are sold into bondage as prostitutes, domestic workers and child laborers, she said.

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