Nuns and Catholic groups strive to eradicate the scourge of human trafficking

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WASHINGTON, DC – Catholic organizations, from women’s religious orders to corporate watch groups, are working on many fronts to stem the scourge – and crime – of human trafficking.

The two most common aspects of human trafficking are sex trafficking and forced labor, although some are victims of both. But two people interviewed by Catholic Information Service also warned against the increasing prevalence of organ trafficking on the black market; the practice was described in the 2002 film “Dirty Pretty Things”.

Nuns have been at the forefront of the fight against human trafficking and for the past decade have come together under the name of US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking. He is part of a worldwide organization called Talitha Kum, named after Jesus ‘instruction to Jairus’ daughter, whom her family believed was dead: “Little girl, arise.

According to Jennifer Reyes, executive director of US Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking, the US group is one of 52 similar national networks owned by Talitha Kum – proof both of the massive scale of human trafficking and of the efforts being made. to prevent it and help those caught in it.

Reyes said forced child marriages are another form of human trafficking. “It can really overlap with sexual exploitation and forced labor,” she noted, adding that the phenomenon of child soldiers is another dimension of human trafficking.

Felician Sister Maryann Mueller, head of the organization’s education working group, said people will tell her at workshops, “Well, that doesn’t happen here. “Well, it happens here,” is his response.

“A lot more people know more about human trafficking than 10 years ago,” Mueller said. “I hope people will be aware of human trafficking – and, more specifically, of how we are complicit as consumers, because people are aware of the dangers of smoking or not using your belt. security.”

How are consumers complicit? “Everything we consume,” Mueller said. “Products that we buy, when we go to a restaurant and eat a meal. Even the supply chain.

Sister Ann Scholz, a school sister of Notre Dame, who chairs the American Catholic Sisters advocacy task force, attended the first international Talitha Kum gathering last fall. There, she said, they identified three “root causes” of human trafficking that the organization can focus on.

“One is forced migration, which makes people vulnerable to human trafficking – unfair immigration law and policy,” said Scholz, who is also associate director of the social mission of the Leadership Conference of Women Religious.

Second, “the power differential between men and women in all sectors, which would mean economic, social, family, political, cultural and religious. And the third one that we identified was the dominant model of neoliberal development and unhindered capitalism, ”said Scholz. “This creates situations of vulnerability which are exploited by traffickers, employers and buyers. “

While the motherhouse of Sister John Schafer, a Sister of the Divine Savior, is in Wisconsin, she and another member of her order have been in California for 17 years serving survivors of trafficking, including 10 years helping to manage a safe house in San Diego. They now live near Sacramento, California, in a parish administered by the Salvatorians, the religious counterpart of the men to their order.

Yet she gives workshops, frequently connects via video conference with other American sisters who also provide direct services to survivors, and visits survivors’ homes to teach English.

In a recent presentation, on how grandparents can protect their grandchildren from the evils of social media, “we had a woman at the presentation who attends the youth program at the ward. She said, “Actually, I saw something wrong with my daughter,” “who was 16 and had a 19-year-old boyfriend who” came into her life “.

The mother continued, “I didn’t want my daughter to know I was searching her. But eventually, through open conversation and I wasn’t too heavy as a parent, my daughter opened up and said, “I think he’s pulling me into something. I think he’s preparing me.

“It’s happening in our school systems,” Schafer said. “We really need to be aware of the undercurrent of what’s going on in social media. “

She also told the story of a young woman from San Diego who, after being forced into prostitution, took refuge in their shelter.

“They ran away from the assailant they were linked with, but I think they weren’t entirely convinced it wasn’t a good way to make money,” Schafer recalled. “The guy kept the money and was abusive, so they ran away from that person,” but the lure of the “quick money” of prostitution and the hope that “maybe the next guy he will be awesome “is hard to dispel.

“We have had women run away from us,” and this woman was one of them, she added. “We had the impression that they were returning to the street. But we don’t know. A safe house is not a prison.

But another woman who came, only to leave, Schafer said, “went back to the streets for four years, then had some kind of conversion experience,” and came home, whose control at this. At that time, the sisters had given to an evangelical group seeking such a home for their ministry. This woman is now part of the staff of this shelter.

Nationally, US Catholic Sisters is one of three dozen Catholic organizations, religious orders, schools and dioceses belonging to the Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking.

The coalition was developed by the United States Conference of Catholic Bishops about 20 years ago, as awareness of human trafficking as a “separate crime” began to mature, Hilary Chester said, USCCB Migration and Refugee Services Associate Director of Anti-Trafficking Programs.

“In the early years, several Catholic organizations were among the first organizations to receive federal funding to provide services to survivors, to form coalitions and task forces in the field and in the United States, the USCCB also was one of the first organizations to get part of the funding to build capacity, create snacks, train paraprofessionals and law enforcement, ”said Chester.

At the same time, since the adoption of the law on the protection of victims of trafficking in 2000, emphasis has also been placed on “maintaining the momentum to have more protective laws”, she added. “We focus a lot more on advocacy both at the local level but also at the national level. “

Action is also being pressed at the company level with the help of faith-based organizations lobbying leaders to end human trafficking where it occurs in its supply chain.

“There are many stories that the apparel industry has more trafficked employees than any other industry in the world,” said Christopher Cox, associate director of the Seventh Generation Interfaith Coalition for Responsible Investment, who, despite its name, is a predominantly Catholic consortium. .

“Because of the extended supply chain, there are many ways a business can act to protect its reputation, but not to protect God’s most vulnerable human beings in its supply chain,” Cox added.

“But even when you think about it here in the United States, farm workers are some of the most vulnerable workers on the planet,” he said. SNC. “There are loopholes in the way we treat farm labor in US labor law, which leads to more exploitation.”

“Shareholder engagements with companies in the transport and hotel sectors in raising awareness and preventing trafficking have been very fruitful,” a February 14 email said to SNC by Caroline Boden, Head of Shareholder Advocacy for St. Louis-based Mercy Investment Services.

“Over the past few years,” she said, “Mercy Investments has tabled resolutions with nine companies in the trucking and transportation industry on the prevention of human trafficking, all of which have been withdrawn and successfully completed. to a substantive dialogue. “

“We were able to withdraw a proposal with Marten Transport when the company agreed to engage with shareholders and adopt a policy to resolve the traffic problem. The company has publicly disclosed an anti-human trafficking policy and has implemented an in-house training program for all of its drivers, ”added Boden.

“We have engaged social media, device makers and telecom companies and are reaching out to others,” a Feb. 13 email said to SNC by Tracey C. Rembert, Director of Catholic Responsible Investments for Christian Brothers Investment Services.

Christian Brothers, Mercy Investments, and Seventh Generation are all members of the Interfaith Center for Corporate Responsibility, which encourages listed companies to behave more ethically.

“We have seen changes in policies and practices and a reorganization of staff in several companies to have a dedicated team for online security,” said Rembert. “We saw Apple start scanning iCloud for child pornography. AT&T (is) rolling out nationwide support for parents on setting up parental controls and including non-ATT customers.

“Verizon has released a new policy on what they do to protect children and joined a number of child protection groups to better understand new technology tools to identify and block child abuse material in line. Facebook and others have just launched a new tool to detect grooming in children, ”he noted.

“A lot is happening, but the risk is also increasing,” Rembert added, noting that “over 60 million images and videos” were reported to the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children hotline “in 2019. “.


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