Slavery ended in the 19th century, right? Wrong.
It’s an easy enough mistake to make. After all, the end of the American Civil War and the Thirteenth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution – both in 1865 – brought an end to slavery in the U.S. And the British Slavery Abolition Act in 1834 ended slavery in the West Indies, Mauritius, and South Africa. But many countries didn’t outlaw slavery until the 20th century. It wasn’t until 1981 that Mauritania finally abolished slavery – becoming the last country on earth to end this dehumanizing practice. But tragically, slavery did not completely end in 1981. It continues to this very day under a new name: Human Trafficking.
The U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transport, transfer, harboring or receipt of a person by such means as threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud or deception for exploitation.” According to the National Human Trafficking Hotline, human trafficking is “the business of stealing freedom for profit.” According to the International Labour Organization (ILO), there are over 40 million victims of human trafficking throughout the world – including our communities – trapped in domestic servitude, agriculture work, fishing, manufacturing, hotel services, construction, hair and nail salons, and prostitution. And of all the sad forms of human trafficking, the worst of the worst are those that enslave children.
According to the ILO, the worst forms of child labor/trafficking that must be eliminated without delay include the sale of children, debt bondage and serfdom, forced labor, forced recruitment for armed conflict, child pornography, child prostitution, and the drug trade.
Every year the Catholic Church designates Feb. 8 – the feast day of St. Josephine Bakhita, a Canossian nun who was abducted as a child and sold into slavery in Sudan and Italy – as the “International Day of Prayer and Awareness Against Human Trafficking.
The Coalition of Catholic Organizations Against Human Trafficking urged seafood producers, distributors, and retailers to fight human trafficking in their supply chains. We have a lot to do to end the scourge of modern-day slavery. Let’s get involved. And let’s get our parishes involved. Let’s refuse to be indifferent to human trafficking! As Pope Francis said, “It is not possible to remain indifferent before the knowledge that human beings are bought and sold like goods.”
