The horror of human trafficking

The fight against modern-day slavery reaches from Washington to the Vatican . . . 

She was a beautiful young Albanian woman who happily left family and home to become an actress and model — never dreaming her patrons planned to turn her into a sex slave.

As soon as she crossed the border, however, she learned that her new life would be radically different than the one she’ d been promised. Her passport was taken away, she was beaten and forced into the sex trade.

Pervasive problem

This story, which is heartbreakingly typical, was in a U.S. State Department briefing given to R. James Nicholson in 2001 as he prepared to become U.S. ambassador to the Vatican. It spurred Nicholson to learn as much as he could about the contemporary phenomenon known as human trafficking — and to do something about it.

Once in Rome, he organized an international conference on the issue that drew participants from 49 countries. “It turned out to be a blessing,” Nicholson told Legatus Magazine. “God and the Holy Spirit were looking after us because all the pieces fell into place and it really motivated a lot of people as well as educating them.”

Thanks to efforts like these, human trafficking is on the radar for legislators, human rights advocates, religious groups, businesses and even filmmakers. For example, the 2008 film Taken, starring Liam Neeson, tells the story of a 17-year-old American girl who is kidnapped by traffickers while visiting in Paris.

The United Nations’ International Labor Organization estimates that about 12.3 million people are in forced and bonded labor and sexual servitude. The U.S. State Department’s 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report, however, puts that number between 4 – 27 million.

The problem of human trafficking is even expected to be a factor at the 2010 Winter Olympics in Vancouver, where traffickers may try to profit from an anticipated increase in demand for prostitution by presenting victims as “visitors.”

Amy Roth meets with children in a Mumbai slum earlier this year

“It’s difficult for people to imagine how pervasive and how massive this is,” said Amy Roth of the International Justice Mission (IJM), which maintains a network of lawyers and social workers who investigate cases and aid victims in 12 countries.

If they find it hard to grasp numbers, people often respond to the face of human trafficking, which Roth describes as “increasingly feminine and minor.”

Roth recently returned from India and Cambodia where she met with victims, including the family of a 12-year-old girl she called Megala. When the girl’s parents divorced, Megala’s mother started seeing a man who began negotiating with potential clients for the girl’s virginity. Fortunately, Roth said, one of the prospective “clients” was an undercover IJM investigator, who alerted local authorities. The girl was rescued and the perpetrator was sentenced to seven years in prison. Unfortunately, Roth said, her story is the exception.

Fighting exploitation

Some victims spend years in slavery and, if they survive, emerge with deep psychological wounds and bodily diseases. “Slavery is exacerbated by ignorance, poverty, manipulation, fraud and coercion,” Roth explained.

Often, someone known to a family will coerce or manipulate a young person into servitude, sometimes with the parents’ knowledge — particularly if they are in strained economic circumstances. Sometimes entire families are forced into indebted servitude.

Although human exploitation has been an issue throughout history, its more contemporary form is now the world’s third largest and fastest-growing criminal enterprise, Roth said.

People from diverse political and ideological backgrounds have come together on the issue. In 2000, Rep. Chris Smith (R-NJ) introduced the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act with 18 Democratic and 18 Republican cosponsors. The bill ensures that traffickers are punished proportionate to penalties for kidnapping and rape. Smith now is working on a bill that would alert authorities of high-risk sex offenders’ travel plans and prevent foreign sex offenders from entering the U.S.

Internationally, the U.N. has conventions and protocols covering aspects of human trafficking like migrant smuggling, the sale of children, child prostitution and child porn. Individual countries, however, are responsible for drafting their own laws to address the problem.

Catholic action

In the battle against human trafficking, the Catholic Church has been a beacon, said Jane Adolphe who teaches international law and human rights at Ave Maria School of Law.

“I don’t really think you can talk about what’s being done to help victims of human trafficking without talking about the Church,” she said.

Both the Holy See and the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops have addressed the problem’s roots and its remedies. On Palm Sunday this year, Pope Benedict XVI called upon the EU and Africa to put an end to human trafficking.

The global economic crisis, he said, has increasingly pushed poor people to make hazardous journeys to other countries. He mentioned the 200 Africans who drowned after their overcrowded boat capsized off Libya in late March.

“The dimensions of the phenomenon make it increasingly urgent,” he said, “that strategies coordinated between the European Union and African states are taken to prevent migrants from turning to unscrupulous traffickers.”

In 2005, as part of a Vatican-sponsored international conference, the Pontifical Council for Migrants and Travelers produced a document offering aid and pastoral care for human-trafficking victims.

State-side, the U.S. bishops have been working on the human-trafficking issue for nearly 10 years by providing survivor services, training and technical assistance, education and advocacy. The USCCB’s latest initiative is a five-year national human-trafficking awareness campaign scheduled to begin next January. It targets Catholics on college campuses and in parishes.

Human trafficking is a Catholic issue because it’s a complete affront to human dignity, said Todd Scribner of the USCCB’s migration and refugee services.

“The Church takes a person’s innate human dignity very seriously,” he explained. “To treat people like they are objects and not human is unacceptable.”

Judy Roberts is a staff writer for Legatus Magazine.

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Fighting the good fight at the office

How CEOs can prevent human trafficking

When Christian Brothers Investment Services, a socially responsible investment advisory firm, asked its 1,000 Catholic institutional clients to rank their issues of highest concern in 2008, human trafficking emerged as No. 1.

Julie Tanner, assistant director of socially responsible investing for Christian Brothers, said the company responded by talking about the issue with the companies it invests in. In one case, she said, they asked about policies, training practices and executives’ awareness of ways to prevent the sexual exploitation of children.

As awareness of human trafficking grows, many businesses are joining anti-trafficking groups and ensuring that their own policies and practices aren’t contributing to the problem. Nyssa Mestas, associate director of anti-trafficking services for the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops, said companies interested in combating human trafficking can take a number of steps both internally and externally:

• Establish a company policy against the misuse of the Internet and posting of sexualized images (i.e., pornography).

• Ensure that the company is not using or tolerating the use of prostitution (i.e., “call-girls” or “escort services”).

• Consider buying TassaTags for traveling employees (www.tassatag.org), luggage tags which support ECPAT USA (End Child Prostitution, Child Pornography and Trafficking of Children for Sexual Purposes).

• Include provisions against the exploitation or trafficking of employees in third-party contractor agreements.

• Educate employees about human trafficking and where to call for help about a situation involving it. The National Human Trafficking Resource Center: (888) 373-7888.

• Evaluate businesses with which you have a relationship to ensure they’re not supporting or creating a demand for forced labor or sex trafficking.

• For travel or tourism businesses, let customers know that sex with minors is a crime and not tolerated by the company. See the Code of Conduct advocating responsible tourism: www.thecode.org.

—Judy Roberts