Santa Marta Group meets to counteract human
trafficking
(Vatican Radio) Police
chiefs, Bishops, Religious sisters and representatives from civil society, who
make up the Santa Marta Group, are joining together this week, 26-27 October,
in the Vatican to share and encourage best practice in the struggle against human
trafficking.
Among those taking part in
the conference is Archbishop Stephen Brislin of Cape Town, South Africa. He
spoke with Christopher Wells about the meeting.
“What the conference tries to
do is to bring together bishops and heads of the Church together with chiefs of
police from various countries,” he said.
And so we often have
chiefs of police from South America, from Canada, North America, various
European countries and some African countries as well, and Asian countries, and
sometimes the presidents of the different episcopal conferences, or some
bishops who are particularly concerned about the issue. And the idea of course
is that together with the police we believe that the church has a very
important role to play in counteracting human trafficking.
Archbishop Brislin said human
trafficking is “an enormous” problem throughout the world, even if, on account
of the secrecy and deception of traffickers, “it’s very difficult to assess”
the full extent of the problem. He described human trafficking as “a new form
of slave labour.”
Describing the efforts of the
Santa Marta Group to counteract human trafficking, Archbishop Brislin pointed
to the example of the cooperation between the Church and police in the United
Kingdom, noting especially the role of women religious in assisting victims of
human trafficking.
Archbishop Brislin also spoke
of the Church’s role in raising awareness about human trafficking. “Another
very important role for the Church is in terms of awareness,” he said, “because
the whole of human trafficking really revolves around deception, deceiving
people into believing that there are wonderful job opportunities in other
places of the world.” He said it’s important to warn vulnerable persons,
especially young people, of the threat of trafficking. “If there is any job
offer that seems to be too good to be true, it is too good to be true. So
beware.”
At this year’s conference,
Santa Marta Group delegates will report back to Pope Francis the progress that
has been made since signing the SMG commitment two years ago, where each of the
24 police chiefs present committed to developing partnerships with the Church
and civil society to bring to justice those who are responsible for the horrendous
crime of trafficking and to alleviate the suffering of the victims.
This year’s SMG conference
will include a call for every Bishops’ Conference to ensure there is a named
Bishop in their Conference to meet and engage with law enforcement officials; a
call to accompany all victims of trafficking through the law enforcement
process; a call for the Church to engage with vulnerable communities and to
provide a safe space for people to report suspected trafficking and for victims
to come forward; a challenge to exploitative industries – not just the sex
trade, but mainstream goods and services; and guidance on the indicators of
trafficking so people can more easily identify when exploitation is occurring.
Delegates will also have an
audience with Pope Francis on 27 October.
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