2014-07-30 17:03:00

Vatican hosts conference marking World Day against Trafficking


(Vatican Radio) The first World Day against Trafficking in Persons is being marked on Wednesday July 30th, with a call to action to step up the fight and support the survivors. Whether it’s child labour in Southeast Asia, organ trading in Central America, sex trafficking in the Middle East or Eastern Europe, child soldiers in Africa, or exploitation in the United States, it’s a problem which touches virtually every part of our global community.  In a statement the UN leader Bank Ki-Moon spoke about the need to cut off funding for the traffickers, while at the same time tackle the root causes of human trafficking such as poverty, inequality and ignorance.

Philippa Hitchen reports: 

Here in the Vatican on Tuesday the Pontifical Academy of Sciences, together with the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See and the ecumenical Global Freedom Network, hosted a video conference with America’s top official on monitoring human trafficking, Ambassador Luis CdeBaca. Speaking from his Washington office, he talked about the recently released U.S. Report on Trafficking in Persons, highlighting the journey that trafficked people make from victim to survivor.

Tracking progress being made in 188 countries around the world, the report focuses on a triple paradigm of ‘prevention, protection and prosecution’.  It’s filled with personal stories about men, women and children who’ve escaped from slavery and are now helping in the fight against the traffickers. Talking to journalists about the millions of people still falling victim to this crime,  Ambassador CdeBaca said there has been an important shift in the way trafficking is being defined:

“Trafficking was defined as moving people across international borders…..so that defined out hereditary slavery in Mauritania, Mali and other parts of West Africa ….”

But does that mean we’re making progress against the trafficking gangs? Certainly the Ambassador listed numerous countries – from the UK to Chile, Sudan to Haiti – that have introduced new anti-trafficking laws but he said there is still not enough political will to tackle the more hidden forms of this widespread phenomenon

 “What we’ve seen around the world is that governments will always try to reclassify things so they are not defined as human trafficking to protect their fishing industry, to protect their palm oil industry, to protect their charcoal industry, to protect their ability to bring in nannies or people to come and build their stadiums for upcoming sporting events..…”

Ambassador CdeBaca stressed the important role the Church has played in defining trafficking as a crime against humanity, pushing it higher up the public agenda. But he said it’s vital to work closer together with all those dealing with the problem to find effective prevention strategies

“My biggest concern is that as a global community we tend to chase the last tragedy….so last year we were suddenly all concerned about fire safety in Bangladeshi garment factories…..so instead of dealing with the labour recruiters that are feeding people into these factories, or the retailers, asking why they let this slavery happen…we’re concerned about getting fire extinguishers in the factories… so a little bit of change happens but not enough systemic change to bring us closer to our goal.”








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