In the UK a new partnership is being forged between the Catholic Bishops and police
to fight the scourge of human trafficking which is the fastest growing form of slavery
today with millions of victims around the world. Detective Inspector Keith Hyland
is a committed Catholic who heads the Anti-Trafficking and Prostitution Unit at the
New Scotland Yard police headquarters. He told Susy Hodges how many of these victims
lose their freedom and basic human rights after being tricked by the traffickers:
"Very often they are duped into thinking that they are coming to London ... for a
great job ... and the streets are paved with gold..." He says the victims of these
traffickers are treated with appalling brutality: " I know of people who've been held
at gunpoint, where people have been routinely beaten, where victims have been raped
on a daily basis..."
Hyland has been in touch with the Catholic Bishops Conference
of England Wales to cooperate in the fight against human trafficking: "I think this
new partnership with the Bishops' Conference is very exciting and ....what we aim
to achieve will be very significant." He said the bishops "are preparing a strategy
that will deal with the response and support that can be given to trafficked victims
and also the education that can be given to congregations."
Hyland said one
of the trafficking cases they dealt with involved a young Lithuanian women: "She was
forced to work for brothels, she had to have sex with up to 20 men a day, she was
violently assaulted if she did not do as she was told and was actually treated worse
than an animal." Insert: