AFRICA/GHANA - There are over 27 million modern slaves: intervention by the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples at Seminar on New Forms of Slavery promoted by the Catholic Bishops of Africa and Europe

Cape Coast (Agenzia Fides)- In our world today 27 million people live in an enslaved condition. This was affirmed by Archbishop Agostino Marchetto, secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples, who referred to the International Labour Organisation (ILO), in his intervention at a Seminar promoted by the Catholic Bishops of Africa and Europe on the theme “I know the sufferings of my people ” (Ex. 3, 7). Slavery and the new forms of Slavery, being held in Cape Coast in Ghana 13-18 November (see Fides 7, 14 and 15 November 2007). In his address Archbishop Marchetto mentioned the three types of modern enslavement established by the ILO: those imposed by the State, those imposed by private agents for commercial sexual exploitation, and those imposed by private agents for economic exploitation. The first type includes including child soldiers: according to the United Nations as many as 300,000 children have been coerced or induced to take up arms as child soldiers.
The trafficking of human persons, Archbishop Marchetto said, is encouraged by other modern tragedies, migration and the high number of refugees caused by war, insurrections and in some cases natural disasters. Archbishop Marchetto recalled that at the end of 2006 the number of people included in the categories assisted by the United Nations Commission for Refugees amounted to 32.9 million. “ Most likely those who have no legal status or are not properly documented have escaped the estimate. This would mean that numbers are higher… undocumented people, living in an irregular situation, could indeed be very vulnerable to trafficking and exploitation. Refugees confined to their camps have become victims as well” said Archbishop Marchetto.
The secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples recalled how the international community has promoted legislation to impede human trafficking and abuse, beginning with a Convention of Forced Labour in 1930 and the " the imminent coming into force of the Council of Europe’s “Convention on Action against Trafficking in Human Beings”: on 1st February 2008".
“Another important step is the decision taken by the United Nations Human Rights Council, during its session on 28 September 2007, to appoint “a Special Rapporteur on contemporary forms of slavery" Archbishop Marchetto said. "A Franciscan friar, Fr. Joseph Legounou, who died a year ago, had spoken at UN gatherings about the present forms of “slavery” in Western Africa, and particularly in his native land, Togo” the secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples recalled adding that “the Church has not been indifferent or silent with regard the modern forms of slavery”.
In this regard Archbishop Marchetto mentioned the many Papal interventions on the theme and numerous documents issued by the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant Peoples and by Bishops' Conferences all over the world. The Catholic Church also assists victims of this trafficking, helping women to find a way out of the infernal circle of forced prostitution and promoting the socio-economic integration into society of child soldiers in many countries of Africa
“We must not forget that the root cause of this horrendous phenomenon of the new forms of slavery is above all the enormous economic gap between rich and poor countries, and between he rich and the poor within the same country” conclude Archbishop Marchetto concluded. (L.M.) (Agenzia Fides 16/11/2007 righe 38 parole 593)