Human trafficking is the modern-day term for slavery. Women, children and men are bought and sold, beaten, abused and sometimes killed as they are traded like commodities on the invisible trafficking markets across the world.
We have to work against the indifference that assigns culpability to others and absolves us of every wrongdoing. The onus therefore lies on everyone to do something to combat and prevent this modern day slavery.
Dirty, demanding and dangerous – these are the types of jobs that migrants often find themselves doing when they leave their homes.
Members and partners of the Network of Christian Organizations Against Trafficking in Humans (COATNET) from 33 organisations and countries met for three days in Paris to advance the fight against the heinous crime of Human Trafficking.
Caritas is a mission, not a job. Nirmala Wijesinghe who runs a Caritas safe house in Beiruit is one of the many staff and volunteers around the world who illustrate this through their constant dedication and hard work.
At a global level it is time to act. For too long governments have thought that they could solve human mobility with half-hearted measures. It is now time to act, to show solidarity, give protection to those who need it, enhance the efforts for peace and invest in development.
The most vulnerable to slavery conditions are those who, due to poverty, lack of other possibilities or indebtedness, accept irregular work and fall prey to traffickers who severely exploit them and make it impossible for them to leave.
Human trafficking occurs in conflict situations since these situations weaken the government, increase poverty, and leave the vulnerable to fend for themselves.
You don’t have to go to “the peripheries”, in the words of Pope Francis, to meet victims of human trafficking, because often they are “hiding in plain sight” in our societies.
Over 800 people died in a migrant shipwreck off the coast of Libya. Only 27 people are thought to have survived the tragedy. Caritas Catania was at the port when their ship arrived at midnight in Sicily. Don Piero Galvano, director of Caritas Catania gives his thoughts.