Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Bangkok (Fides Service) - Human trafficking is a global scourge which calls for international efforts to put an end to this new slavery. Human trafficking is an emerging question in the field of protecting human rights in the new millennium. This was said at a meeting held in April in Bangkok, organised by the United Nations Office for Crime Control and Criminal Justice. It is estimated that between 800,000 and 900,000 people fall prey to human trafficking every year, mostly women and children sold as slaves, or sexually abused the experts said at the Congress, attended also by Papal Nuncio in Thailand, Archbishop Salvatore Pennacchio, as representative of the Holy See.
Sex tourism, a challenge which involves the whole world, is the main motivation behind human trafficking which continues to prosper because it is tolerated by many governments. Corruption and complicity by government workers has become a serious problem.
According to the US State department the trafficking of humans renders criminal networks between 7 to 10 billion dollars a year. The income of this trafficking is used by criminals, those who organise prostitution and corrupt police to fund other illegal activities. The victims are usually poor and vulnerable people striving desperately to improve their own living conditions of those of their family. “Slavery is a stain on our history”, the Congress participants said.
Addressing the Meeting Archbishop Pennacchio stressed the need to have a national and international system of criminal justice which will identify not only the criminals but also the victims of human trafficking. He connected the phenomenon to that of the trafficking of arms which feeds crime and terrorism and above all corruption and which erodes the fundamental values of society and undermines democratic and peaceful co-existence among nations. “It is crucial - he said - for politicians and magistrates to co-operate with the civil society and with the media to fight corruption”.
The Nuncio said that scenes of conflict or homelessness after natural tragedies are a fertile land for human trafficking and he called on the United Nations and governments to protect people rendered vulnerable by war or natural disasters.
Also Pope Benedict XVI when he received on 7 May the Bishops of Sri Lanka in Rome, condemned trafficking of human beings which strikes the most vulnerable persons. “No effort must be spared- the Pope said - to encourage civil authorities and the international community to fight child abuse and assure young people the necessary legal protection”.
(PA) (Agenzia Fides 9/5/2005 righe 35 parole 349)
