Human trafficking is one of the crimes that attacks the heart of humanity most directly, which is why the Church is so committed to its eradication. These are the words of Cardinal Vincent Nichols, president of the Santa Marta Group that has just finished its annual meeting in the Vatican.
The cardinal highlights that trafficking is not limited to the Third World, but rather is global.
CARD. VINCENT NICHOLS
President, Santa Marta Group
“This is robbing people their humanity and making out of people objects. I became committed to this work a number of years ago now when I met an English woman who had been taken into modern-day slavery and trafficked into Italy to work as a prostitute. I did not think of that as human trafficking and as I said this morning every country is both a country from which people are taken into slavery and to which they are brought to labor, to work.”
That's why the Santa Marta Group is collaborating with law enforcement to develop guides educating the common citizen on how to see the invisible and detect trafficking cases around them. Another key factor is training the most vulnerable to resist this threat.
MSGR. AUGUSTINE OBIORA AKUBEZE
Bishop of Benin City, Nigeria
“Why are people trafficked? People are trafficked because of poverty, because of ignorance, because of lack of education. These are things we are working on and the government has to work on. The Church tries to create education, to educate people, to tell that this is wrong because those who come to convince them, try to convince them everything is right about it.”
Although the numbers are alarming and the business is increasingly more sophisticated and underground, there are reasons for hope.
MSGR. AUGUSTINE OBIORA AKUBEZE
Bishop of Benin City, Nigeria
“That's what we are pointing out to people – just because you're trafficked doesn't mean you can become useless.”
CARD. VINCENT NICHOLS
President, Santa Marta Group
“There was a reunion of the guests of the last two years of Bakhita house. There were 82 women, and it was the most happy occasion. Perhaps the simple symbol of it was... there was a 2 year-old-baby there. This was from a Nigerian woman who was rescued. She was pregnant and she stayed at Bakhita house, and the baby was born. She brought the baby to the party and she called her little daughter Bakhita.”
As these bishops remind, modern slavery can be combatted and its victims – as with St. Josephine Bakhita – can always start over.
