Human trafficking is “brutal, savage and criminal,” Pope Francis said, but often it seems like people see it as a sad, but normal fact of life.
“I want to call everyone to make a commitment to seeing that this perverse plague, a modern form of slavery, is effectively countered,” the Pope said on July 30, the UN’s World Day Against Trafficking in Persons.
After reciting the Angelus with thousands of people gathered in St. Peter’s Square, Pope Francis asked them to join him in praying a Hail Mary so that Jesus’ mother would “support the victims of trafficking and convert the hearts of traffickers”.
Catholic organisations said in the run-up to the UN anti-trafficking day that stopping criminal networks of human traffickers will require the creation of “safe, legal and responsible migration pathways” so migrants and refugees don’t feel forced to turn to smugglers.
Victims
Catholic humanitarian groups, religious orders and coalitions, who have a long history of helping trafficking victims, appealed for government and community action.
“People are trafficked within local settings as well as across international borders for domestic servitude, sexual and labour exploitation, begging, forced marriage, organ removal, surrogate wombs and criminal acts,” said the statement, which was distributed by the International Union of Superiors General, the organisation representing the heads of Catholic orders of women.
“While estimates of the number of victims of human trafficking remain in the tens of millions, worldwide convictions of human traffickers are fewer than 10,000,” the statement read.