P R A Y I N G W I T H T H E C H U R C H
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INTENTION : |
That the shameful and monstrous trafficking in human beings, which sadly involves millions of women and children, may stop.
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One of the most shameful, unjust and offensive phenomena of our time is the trafficking of persons for sexual or industrial exploitation, against the free will of the victims. It is nothing else but slavery, which still in our modern World involves millions of persons in all continents.
People-trafficking is a crime which has increased in an important way at world level since the 1990s. Among the abuses experienced by the victims of trafficking are 'violation, torture, servitude for debt, illegal confinement and threats against the families or persons associated with the victims, along with other forms of violence, physical, sexual and sociological,' the International Office for Migrations, IOM, explains. The organisation adds that "the demand for cheap labour, for sexual services and for certain criminal activities are the original causes of people-trafficking. The lack of opportunities and resources, as of social power, are other factors which contribute to this phenomenon".
According to information from the International Work Organisation, IWO, in 2005 the trafficking of persons was one of the three most lucrative illegal trades at world level, surpassed only by the drugs trade and the arms trade. According to estimates, this activity brings in to organised crime some $32,000 million dollars per year. For the United Nations Office against drugs and crime, UNDOC, the victims of people-trafficking are destined chiefly for sexual exploitation and forced labour.
Given the clandestine way in which the mafias operate it is very difficult to know how many victims there are of this grave violation of human dignity. The numbers can oscillate between 700 million and two million persons trafficked each year. The highest concentration of human trafficking or trade in persons is found in Asia, but it is a reality present in the other continents as well.
What is alarming in this situation is the virtual failure of the greater number of national political authorities to take effective means to confront it. The silence and the ignorance on the subject in the political sphere only favour those who are widening their nets of abduction and extortion. Few countries have legal instruments to arrest the traffic in persons, and for the most part they are insufficient and inadequate. No country has been really capable of holding back the constant growth of this evil.
It is difficult to imagine the indescribable anguish and helplessness experienced by the victims, who generally end up in drug-addiction, suffering sexually-transmitted diseases, and whose end is nothing but death in conditions of inhuman deprivation. Even so, there are people who have managed to escape this fate.
The Holy Father's warning voice invites us to work to oppose, to resist and strive to eliminate this blight from our society. This month's intention for prayer is a call, in the first place, to inform ourselves on the subject, to make it known and not to let our silence favour the criminals. Let us be interested in knowing how and to whom to report suspicious situations, that is, to the specialist organs of the police in one's country (when they are trustworthy) or to others. We could also collaborate actively in institutions which are already working on the question.
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