Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Rome (Agenzia Fides) – Nearly two and a half million people are the victims of trafficking for sexual exploitation, 500,000 of which are in Europe and between 29,000 and 38,000 in Italy. As a result of these alarming facts, the Congress 2009: “Female Religious in Network against Trafficking in Persons” has been organized. The event takes place today, June 15-June 18. The Opening Address will be given by Archbishop Antonio Maria Veglio, President of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of
Migrants and Itinerant People.
The facts on the phenomenon – revealed in 2007 by the Justice Department of the EU Commission – were revisited during a press conference for the Congress held in the Holy See Press Office. The initiative has been organized by the International Union of Superiors General (UISG) and by the International Organization for Migration (IOM). The two organizations work against this phenomenon, through 15 international networks that include 252 female congregations in 36 countries. The IOM now has 500 sisters throughout the world.
Trafficking in human persons is still difficult to clearly define once and for all. Since December 2000, there has been an effort to establish the series of criminal practices that can help in understanding the phenomenon. Since that year, in fact, the definition of trafficking has been given by international organizations: “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation. Exploitation shall include, at a minimum, the exploitation of the prostitution of others or other forms of sexual exploitation, forced labour or services, slavery or practices similar to slavery, servitude or the removal of organs.”
Participating in the press conference were Fr. Eusebio Hernandez Sola O.A.R., bureau chief at the Congregation for Institutes of Consecrated Life and Societies of Apostolic Life; Sr. Victoria Gonzales de Castejon R.S.C.J., secretary general of the UISG; Carmela Godeau, vice head of mission of the IOM; Sr. Bernadette Sangma F.M.A., and Stefano Volpicelli of the IOM. Sr. Sangma mentioned that “no nation in the world can claim immunity to this social plague,” and she further explained: “The main protagonists range from family members to partners, from neighbors to friends, from friends to foreigners; but those mainly responsible are the criminal organizations, oftentimes in cohorts with local authorities or politicians, that take advantage of the poorest and most defenseless in society all over the globe.” “Trafficking is not something distant from us: it happens in our streets, in our neighborhoods, and effects the people we know, our friends, our children, our schools and parishes.”
The 2009 Congress, which begins today in Rome, is the second after the Congress held June 2-6 2008 by the International Union of Superior Generals for migration, financed by the US Government (see Fides 9/6/2008) The desire to create this network of religious to fight trafficking in human persons has been inserted into the Final Declaration, which affirms: “As consecrated women, in solidarity with our brothers and sisters who suffer the consequences of this evil, refuse to remain silent. We renew our commitment to promoting the dignity of all people in response to Jesus's words: 'I came to bring them life, and life to the full.'” (Mtp) (Agenzia Fides 15/6/2009)
