By Scott Alessi

Catholics take a stand in fight against child slavery

Church organizations push for better enforcement of anti-trafficking laws, increased awareness

For millions of children worldwide, slavery is not merely an abstract concept covered in a routine history lesson. It is a way of life.

In countries across the globe -- including the United States -- children are being trafficked across borders and sold into slavery, primarily for forced labor and sexual exploitation.

There are more people living in slavery in the world today than at any point in human history, says E. Benjamin Skinner, author of "A Crime So Monstrous: Face-to-Face with Modern-Day Slavery" (Free Press, $26). While he is hesitant to give exact figures since many slaves are kept hidden and remain uncounted, he points to reports that there are as many as 27 million slaves worldwide. He estimates that an alarming 30 percent to 40 percent are minors.

Vulnerable victims

"There's no question children are more vulnerable than adults to being coerced into forced labor and forced sex situations," said Skinner, who has witnessed the evils perpetrated by slave traders and traffickers on four continents. "What traffickers learn to do in places like rural Haiti is to leverage the love that parents feel for their children in order to pry those children from them. And it is an incredibly dastardly crime."

Skinner said traffickers often lure parents into giving up their children with false promises, knowing that handing over a child is often the parents' last recourse to save the life of that child or their other children. Traffickers offer such promises as a regular paycheck, good working conditions and education, but none of these promises ever materialize, he said. In areas such as Southeast Asia, where enslavement of young girls for sexual exploitation is widespread, combating the problem can be an uphill battle. The International Catholic Migration Commission has worked on both legislative reform and victim-assistance programs in the countries of Indonesia, Cambodia, Vietnam and the Philippines since 2001, but it has faced economic and political obstacles.

"All these countries have large income disparities between the rich and the poor. Poverty really drives people out of their homes and forces people to not care what happens to their children," said Abhijit Dasgupta, senior manager of safe migration at the ICMC field office in Jakarta, Indonesia.

"When there is some kind of offer for a job, whatever that may be, a member of the community is rather happy to let their child go and not ask questions about what is going to happen to them."

Dasgupta told Our Sunday Visitor that although the ICMC has been successful in advocating the passage of stronger anti-trafficking legislation in Indonesia, it is still difficult to bring child traffickers to justice. In places like Cambodia, he said, police may enforce the laws, and prosecutors may bring a case against a trafficker, but judges take no action and level no punishment against the guilty parties.

"We have very good laws in many of these countries, but enforcement is another thing," he said.

Addressing the source

For many who are working in the fight against child slavery, the best solutions come from examining the root causes of the issue.

"We have to very much look at what makes people vulnerable to becoming slaves," Skinner said. "Then we can start to look at the best ways to free them, to keep them free and to implant the idea of rights and freedom in those places that may never have had exposure to those concepts."

Mary DeLorey, a Catholic Relief Services adviser on global human trafficking issues, told OSV that CRS has implemented a number of programs in Asia, Africa, Europe and Latin America to aid not only survivors of child slavery but potential victims as well.

CRS works with local organizations to provide programs such as shelters for trafficking victims, community enhancement projects to create safe environments for children and education reform.

"A lot of our programming with children in trafficking prevention programs really focuses on getting the kids back into school," DeLorey said. "And it is not just getting the kids in school, but looking at what type of schooling they are getting and does the school prepare them to actually have employment in the future, which in many cases it doesn't."

The U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops has partnered with both government and non-governmental agencies to provide aid to foreign-born child slavery victims rescued on U.S. soil.

The USCCB works with the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and the Lutheran Immigration and Refugee Service to coordinate the Unaccompanied Refugee Minor Program. Through this program, child trafficking victims who are unable to be reunited with their parents are resettled in foster care and provided with such services as counseling, job-skill training, legal assistance and education.

In 2002, the USCCB also formed the Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking, a collection of more than 20 Catholic groups working both domestically and abroad on a variety of trafficking issues.

The main purpose of the coalition is for organizations to share information on their individual projects and to educate one another, said Nyssa Mestas, assistant director of anti-trafficking services for the USCCB's Department of Migration and Refugee Services.

"It is really amazing to come to the meetings and to listen to what everyone is doing," she said. "When people ask how much involvement the Catholic Church has on the issue, I think we are doing a lot because we have the capacity and we have the reach to be in so many different areas of society."

Raising awareness

The greatest problem in the United States, Mestas said, is identifying victims of child trafficking.

"We believe that there are a lot of children out there. The numbers we just don't know, but even one is too many," she said.

The key to locating more victims, she explained, is increased education and awareness about the issue. Both child and adult slaves have been rescued across the United States through the help of conscientious citizens who have reported instances in their neighborhoods, local businesses and even in their churches.

"Victims can be anywhere," Mestas said. "I think that is something the church community needs to be aware of because there could even be people in your pews.

"There are lots of ways the Catholic person in church and in society can work on the issue by keeping their eyes open, being educated and looking out for their fellowman."

--Scott Alessi writes from New Jersey.

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