The 30th of July is the United Nations’s international day dedicated to the 40 million victims of human trafficking around the world. “Social” campaign by the Holy See. The commitment comes from Catholic organisations such as the Salesians, female congregations, the Order of Malta and various charities.
The proud face of a young woman of African origin with the words: “My body is not for sale” . Those words formed the first tweet of the social campaign of the section “Migrants and Refugees” of the Vatican Ministry for the Service Integral Human Development, in occasion of the World Day Against Human Trafficking declared by the United Nations for every 30th of July. “Slavery is a 150 billion dollar industry. People are not for sale!”, is one of the other messages promoted by the Ministry that started it’s 3 day web campaign – from the 27th to the 30th of July. The international hashtag is #EndHumanTrafficking. In the background there’s Pope Francis’s repeated appeals to end human trafficking and the new forms of slavery, the latest of which happened yesterday in Saint Peter’s Square during the Angelus.
Among the various catholic organisations that mobilized themselves to fight for this cause over the last few hours are: the UISG (International Unions Superior General), that supports the international network against the trafficking of female Congregations worldwide. Talitha Kum; the non profit organisations of numerous European and Mediterranean countries (from Europe to the Middle East) that launched a “trans-border” research initiative aimed at “contributing to the improvement of the procedures for assisting saved victims while providing data and figures relating to the impact of the slave trade in the attempt to conjure up new and more efficient methods to aid the victims during the rehabilitation process” one of the main objectives of this project are to find new ways and tools to deter and contrast the traffickers themselves.
Then, the Pope John the XXIII Association and also the Order of Malta, which has been operating for years in the rescue of migrants. It’s estimated that human trafficking afflicts 40 million people worldwide, among which an estimated 50 to 70 thousand women are exploited by this “market” on the streets of Italy. The Sovereign Order of Malta addressed an appeal to governments, civil societies and businesses in order to “prevent measures to end human trafficking and protecting and assisting the survivors. The trafficking of human beings is a tragic form of contemporary slavery, that constitutes a serious crime and threat to human dignity and to physical integrity”. “The Order of Malta, affirms the Grand Chancellor Albrecht Boeselager, wants to underline the necessity to reinforce the synergies, partnership and alliances between the various United Nations agencies, regional organisations, local and international NGOs and civil societies, including religious organisations” to combat human trafficking.
In this context, the number of children and women forced into slavery is on the rise. In occasion of the World Day against the trafficking of Persons Save the Children published a report entitled:“Young Invisible Enslaved 2018”. “We estimate – affirms the organisation – that worldwide, almost 10 million children and adolescents were forced into slavery just in the year 2016, mostly sold off for sexual and/or labor exploitation. A number that corresponds to roughly 25% of the total people that find themselves in this horrible condition yearly”. As far as Italy is concerned, according Save the Children, “amongst the evidence contained in the report, on the border of Ventimiglia, Italy, there’s the emersion of the phenomenon known as “Survival sex”, where female minors, in transit mostly from the horn of Africa and from Sub-Saharan countries are induced into prostituting themselves in order to pay for the transit past the border into France or to provide for food and shelter for themselves.”.
On this same note of protecting minors from the horrors of human trafficking, the Salesians implemented the project “I Care About You” aimed at “containing and limiting the phenomenon of unaccompanied trafficked children that operate outside of the refugee shelter circuits, reconstructing a relationship of mutual trust and respect with these children, sharing their needs and attempting to reinsert them into avenues of assistance and integration”. The activities, sustained thanks to Intesa San Paolo’s charity fund, are carried out in Torino, Naples and Catania in the neighbourhoods adjacent to the major train stations. The initiative aims at immediately guaranteeing “to each intercepted child, aid and protection. In a second phase the intercepted children are offered the possibility to study Italian, receive legal advice to help them with their immigration status, to acquire professional competencies and to be inserted into the work force”. There were more than 17 thousand minors that were brought illegally onto the Italian shores in 2017 and a great number of them weren’t accompanied by their family members.
Numerous testimonies were collected by social workers in the various cities where the Salesian project is in effect, here’s one example that we’d like to share. “My name is G., I come from Egypt. There I lived with my mother, my father and my two younger siblings, my father was a sheep herder and ever since I was a young child he would take me with him to help out with work”. “When I grew older, however – he goes on to say- there wasn’t enough food in the house for everyone, so therefore my father sent me to the city and entrusted me to a friend of his who kept me at home with him and and he would have me work as a bricklayer and handyman. I spent a few months there, then one day this man asked me if I’d like to travel with him. My father immediately agreed”.
“I left – G. goes on to explain - but at a certain point he left me alone and entrusted me to another man, a truck owner, that after a long journey put me on an inflatable raft. I arrived in Italy two years ago, I was sent to a shelter for minors but when I turned 18 they made me leave. I’d like to travel to northern Italy but I have no money and my temporary visa is expired. I even thought of going back home to my country, my mother passed away, but I don’t have money for that either…”
