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What is human trafficking? Slavery is supposed to have been abolished, but it’s come back. Today we call it trafficking, and it’s alive and well and thriving in the 21st century. Traffickers prey on the poor and powerless, using force or deception to abduct and imprison them, or otherwise establish control over them and deprive them of any freedom of action. Often the victims are removed to distant places, far from any family members or social networks that could protect them, and it is common practice to smuggle them across national borders. Huge profits are generated for organised crime by exploiting and selling the sexual services, labour and organs of trafficked human beings. Trafficking wrecks the lives of millions of women and men, girls and boys across the world today. In 2013 a group of religious women met with Pope Francis to ask him to establish a worldwide day of prayer for victims of human trafficking. When he asked them what date they thought would be most suitable, they proposed the feastday of St Josephine Bakhita: 8th February, and so it was agreed. Herself a trafficked child who not only survived to tell her story, but went on to find inner healing and true happiness, Josephine Bakhita brings home to us the horror of trafficking, yet also offers a message of hope to its victims.
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09/12/2014 15:51
