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Man-woman relationship: Men do not always relate to women as equals. Because of violence or its threat, men often assume privilege and power over women reducing them to silence and compliance. This often results in women and children forced out onto the street. Sadly, women too can oppress other women, especially when they are members of criminal gangs involved with prostitution.
IMF Managing Director Rodrigo de Rato (L) presents a check to a nun after he visited the Institute des Filles Marie Auxiliatrice in Cotonou, Benin in May 2005. The nuns provide shelter, food, education and medical aid to young children who have escaped slavery and other abuse. REUTERS/ Stephen Jaffe
Role of the Church: The Church has a responsibility to promote human dignity – including the dignity of victims of exploitation through trafficking or prostitution. The Church must also encourage people to promote human dignity by eliminating sexual exploitation.

The Conference also acknowledged the need for religious congregations, lay movements and institutions to give greater “visibility” and attention to the pastoral care of victims of prostitution.

Some of the Conference’s proposals were as follows:

Church action to liberate women of the street: Both men and women should be involved in the fight against trafficking and prostitution, with concern for human rights its driving force. They should try to educate both the traffickers and their ‘clients’ in human and moral values. The Church should be able to condemn their evil activity in such a fashion that they, the perpetrators, hear it clearly.

Episcopal conferences: Episcopal conferences in countries where prostitution is fuelled by trafficking should denounce it publicly. They should help promote respect and compassion towards women who have been caught in prostitution.

Role of religious congregations: Religious congregations should join forces in their efforts to fight trafficking and its consequences. The various projects they sponsor aimed at the repatriation of women caught in prostitution should be adequately financed. International meetings of religious groups involved in this work are to be encouraged. Local clergy should also be involved especially in the Christian formation of young men and in the rehabilitation of sex ‘clients’.

Collaboration: Both public and private agencies should collaborate to defeat sexual exploitation. The media should be involved to ensure effective and correct communication to the public about this problem.

The Conference concluded by, among other things, urging bishops to include the topics of sexual exploitation, and trafficking of human beings in their ad limina (five-yearly) visits to the Pope; by advocating education and awareness programmes in seminaries on sexual exploitation of women and minors.

As a sign of the seriousness with which the problem of trafficking in human beings is viewed, another international conference will take place in the Vatican, September 12-13, 2005, organized by Caritas Internationalis.

This same seriousness was echoed in the words of the US Secretary of State, Condoleezza Rice on the occasion of the release of the Fifth Annual Department of State Trafficking in Persons report, on 3 June last: “To confront the abomination of human trafficking, a modern day abolitionist movement has emerged. Concerned citizens, students, faith-based organizations, feminists and other non-governmental groups are doing courageous and compassionate work to end this trade in human degradation.”

Ireland: Trafficking of Women for Sex Trade Increasing
Ruhama – a voluntary organization offering support to prostitutes in Ireland has called on the Government to shut down the country’s burgeoning trade in lap-dancing clubs.

The call follows indications that the number of foreign women trafficked into Ireland to work in the sex industry is increasing. Between 2003-4 Ruhama supported 91 women who were trafficked into Ireland. Most came from Eastern Europe – from countries such as Albania and Romania. The 91 have been described as the “tip of the iceberg”.

The criminal gangs who operate as traffickers use coercion tactics such as constantly moving the women around the country, threats of or actual physical violence or threatening them with deportation. Women trafficked into Ireland usually end up working in lap-dancing clubs or brothels.

Ruhama has contact with over 240 women involved in prostitution in Dublin alone and offers counselling, personal support as well as computer training and employment support.

A 12-year-old Bangladeshi former camel-jockey shows his companions a deep scar on his left leg after the boys were repatriated from the United Arab Emirates in Dhaka in August 2002. The Bangladesh National Women Lawyers' Association provided shelter to the boys, gave them legal assistance against traffickers and helped them locate their home villages. REUTERS/Mohammad Shahidullah
Child Camel Jockeys – Robbing Children of their Childhoods and their Futures
The trafficking and exploitation of South Asian and African children as camel jockeys has burgeoned in the Gulf states as part of the multi-million dollar camel racing industry.

Thousands of children, some as young as 3 or 4 years of age, are trafficked from Bangladesh, Pakistan and countries in East Africa and sold into slavery to serve as camel jockeys. These children live in unsanitary conditions, receive little food, and are deprived of sleep so that they do not gain weight and increase the load on the camels they race.

Working in temperatures exceeding 100 degrees Fahrenheit, handlers employ abusive control tactics, including threats and beatings. Some are reportedly abused sexually. Many have been seriously injured and some have been trampled to death by the camels.

Those who survive the harsh conditions are disposed of once they reach their teenage years. Having gained no productive skills or education, scarred with physical and psychological trauma that can last a lifetime, these children often end up leading destitute lives. Trafficked child camel jockeys are robbed of their childhoods – and their future.
(Courtesy: Trafficking in Persons Report 2005)