“We can all commit to learning more about human trafficking,” .....
​..... “We can commit to helping victims of ‎ human trafficking. And we can commit to tackling the systems that enable human trafficking ‎to flourish.”

​Unreported World- Nigeria: Sex, Lies and Black Magic

May 15, 2019 - from National JPIC Team

Are our food and other goods linked to slavery?

May 6, 2019 - Andrew Conradi ofs, FVC Editor
How about cocoa, sugar and other commodities?
We mostly benefit from slave labour through the pipeline supplying cheap goods from slavery-friendly countries. In the great tradition of supporting our sweet tooth with forced labour, we import a quarter-billion U.S. dollars’ worth of sugar cane from Brazil and the Dominican Republic. Slavery in the cocoa-growing countries of Africa is so common, some chocolate bars are marketed as slavery-free.
We buy over US$4.5 billion worth of clothing produced by slaves from Argentina to China to Vietnam, US$1.5 billion in slave-dug gold from Peru, and almost half a billion dollars’ worth of slave-caught fish from at least eight different countries.
Visiting the following websites that provide some sense of the scale of the issue, and offers ways to fight it.                      See Andrew Conradi's essay for more reflection on these concerns

Myanmar: Women, Girls Trafficked as 'Brides' to China

Human Trafficking Update 
April 8, 2019 - Felician Sisters of N America
​
The Myanmar and Chinese governments have failed to stem the trafficking of ethnic Kachin women and girls as "brides" to families in China, according to Human Rights Watch.
 
Trafficking survivors said that trusted people, including family members, promised them jobs in China, but instead sold them for the equivalent of $3,000 to $13,000 to Chinese families. In China, they were typically locked in a room and raped so they would become pregnant.
Photo: Esther Htusan - AP
50 Women Sue Salesforce, Claiming It Helped Backpage in Sex Trafficking

Fifty women are suing Salesforce, alleging the company profited by helping Backpage to engage in sex trafficking. 
​
Salesforce has long touted human rights and building technology for the greater good. Salesforce markets customer acquisition and retention tools for businesses. It's one of San Francisco's largest software companies, with a market valuation above $120 billion.

                   Also learn more at Human Rights Watch

​Human Trafficking Update

From - Our Lady of Hope Province Update: Friday, February 8, 2019
 
169 Arrested In Human Trafficking Investigation Leading Up To Super Bowl
 There were 169 arrests during an 11-day FBI investigation into human trafficking throughout metro Atlanta leading up to the Super Bowl. 
 
Among those arrested before the Super Bowl were 26 suspects alleged to be sex traffickers and 34 suspects who allegedly attempted to engage in sex acts with minors. 
 
Nine juvenile victims of sex trafficking were rescued, including a 14-year-old. Nine other trafficking victims were also identified.
 
Truckers Against Trafficking has saved more than 1K victims
 Truckers Against Trafficking is an organization that teaches drivers to recognize the signs of human trafficking and has helped rescue more than 1,100 victims. The organization's education mobile landed in the nation's capital this weekend to spread the word about a nationwide problem.
 
Stop Trafficking Newsletter
 The February issue of the Stop Trafficking Newsletter, co-sponsored by the Felician Sisters of North America, may be accessed by clicking here. This month's issue focuses on the importance of collaboration and partnership.
 
Intersection between Racism and Human Trafficking
 Is there a connection between racism and human trafficking? The United States Catholic Sisters Against Human Trafficking has published their February reflection which focuses on this relationship. The reflection may be accessed by clicking here.

Recognize the Signs 

January 5, 2019
Are you or someone you know being trafficked? Is human trafficking happening in your community? Recognizing potential red flags and knowing the indicators of human trafficking is a key step in identifying more victims and helping them find the assistance they need.
Bear in mind that not all indicators will be present in all situations. The type of trafficking and the content or environment are all important to take into account.
Click here to see the full list of the signs of trafficking.
Share this with your fraternities

​Vatican to UN: We must eliminate causes of human trafficking

November 8, 2018 - The Crux
NEW YORK -  Human trafficking and its root causes can be eliminated with the cooperation of the international community, the Vatican’s representative to the United Nations said Tuesday.
​
“To eradicate trafficking in persons, we must confront all its economic, environmental, political, and ethical causes, but it is particularly important to prevent and end the wars and conflicts that 
(Credit: Hernan Pinera via Flickr (CC by SA 2.0).)
make people especially vulnerable to being trafficked,” Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Apostolic Nuncio and Permanent Observer of the Holy See to the United Nations, said in an address.

“Wars and violent conflicts have become the biggest driving force of forced human displacement,” he said, noting that traffickers take advantage of the chaos of war to exploit vulnerable people, using them for sexual slavery or forced labor.                                            READ MORE
 Also See:    UK envoy to Vatican impressed by women’s leadership in Church

ROME - Sally Axworthy, the British ambassador to the Holy See and a supporter of women in leadership, has said she believes the Vatican is making progress and finds the Catholic Church, particularly women religious, to be a key partner in fighting plagues such as ​​slavery and human trafficking.   READ MORE

Pope Francis appeals for end to human trafficking

30.07.17- Vatican Radio
 (Vatican Radio) Pope Francis called for increased efforts to end human trafficking on Sunday. The Holy Father’s appeal came in remarks following the Angelus prayer with pilgrims and tourists gathered in St. Peter’s Square, on the 17th Sunday in Ordinary Time and the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, sponsored by the United Nations.
​
​     Read more....
 Picture

Canadian owned mining company connected to slave labor . . .

A mine owned by Canadian company Nevsun Resources used slave labor to build a gold, copper and zinc mine in Eritrea.
Brave former workers broke the silence about the harrowing conditions they faced -- including forced labor, imprisonment, and torture. Dozens of workers have joined the case, and now, in a landmark decision, their civil action suit will be heard in a Canadian court. - SumOfUs ​
Let the Board of Directors know what you think.

How many slaves work for you?

December 21, 2016

Holy See to UN: Modern-Day Slave Trade Is Flourishing

Says war and armed conflict is biggest factor facilitating human trafficking
Archbishop Bernardito Auza, Permanent Observer of the Holy See at the United Nations, warned the UN Security Council that the modern-day slave trade of human trafficking is flourishing along side the migrant and refugee crisis.
He said this Tuesday in an address to the Open Debate on Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Trafficking in persons in conflict situations.
New York, 20 December 2016
Mr. President, The Holy See is grateful that the Presidency of the Kingdom of Spain has brought this very important subject of trafficking in persons in conflict situations to the deliberation of this Council and to the attention of the International Community. For the Holy See, this issue of trafficking in persons is of pre-eminent importance. People of goodwill, whatever their religious beliefs, can never allow women, children and men to be treated merely as objects, to be deceived, violated, often sold and resold for profit, leaving them devastated in mind and body only to be finally eliminated or abandoned. Such treatment is shameful and barbaric. It must be condemned unequivocally. The full force of the law must be brought to bear upon those who commit such crimes.  ​     Read More.......

The Canadian Fair Trade Network and Rethink Communications Expose Child Labour

Heat sensitive cups reveal the dark side of cocoa
​Last week, the Canadian Fair Trade Network and Rethink Communications took to a Canadian campus to raise awareness for what the United Nations refers to as, “some of the worst forms of child labour” with a stunt that left university students speechless. Passers-by were treated to a cup of hot cocoa that, when filled, activate thermal ink to reveal a devastating message: 1.8 million children work on cocoa plantations. Many of them are slaves. Needless to say, the fact shocked quite a few students. Please share and buy fair trade.

Human slavery in the prawn industry The Guardian, 11 June 2014

The Guardian, U.K. has published a multimedia investigation, narrated by Benedict Cumberbatch, detailing how human slavery is profiting the prawn industry. This video is distressing and viewer discretion is advised.

VIEW VIDEO

What can we, consumers, do?

Steve Trent, Environmental Justice Foundation offers four ways we can shop with our conscience, encouraging supermarkets to source with theirs.
For six months, the Guardian investigated the prawn-shrimp supply chain and prove that there is a huge cost for the low-priced prawns-shrimps we consumers purchase from large supermarkets such as Walmart and Costco. That cost is human slavery.

Of the more than 300,000 fishermen involved in the sea-food industry in Thailand, 9 in 10 of them are (Burmese) migrants, unregistered - "ghosts". They are sold for $450 each and they are forced to assume responsibility for repaying that amount. Since it's so hard to repay that head-money, most of them are sold from boat to boat. Working up to 22 hours per day trawling for "trash-fish" to feed the prawns and maybe living on a bowl of rice as their daily ration, they are often severely battered and tortured in an effort to work them harder. Should they rebel, the punishment is brutal, even to excruciating murder, to terrify the onlookers into subjugation. Some resort to suicide. Very few are rescued.

The issue appears to be collusion for profit in the supply chain between brokers and police. C.P. Foods, which buys fishmeal to feed the farmed prawns and the supermarkets can influence this situation by, for example, incorporating independent spot checks at all levels in the supply chain and sourcing only from suppliers who see to it that workers' conditions of employment match consumers' expectations for humanity.

Human Trafficking in our North?

CBC - The Current | Feb 4, 2014 | 24:00

Human trafficking of Inuit women and girls has become an open secret in the North - Feb 4, 2014. There is no name for it in Inuktitut but a new study says human trafficking of Inuit women and girls must be tackled. There are reports of families approached to sell babies of Inuit and Aboriginal youth lured south and then trafficked for sex.

"I'm from the North. I've been with the RCMP or the police force for over 22 years now, growing up with a lot of local people. I hear a lot of what's going on -- girls travelling south, kind of losing connection with their own families; families trying to get in touch with their loved ones and, very difficult to do so. It's a very strong suspicion. Definitely with young adults, teenagers and young adults, there's definitely something happening."
                                                                Sgt Yvonne Niego of the RCMP in Iqaluit.
Read more and hear the podcast.

Free the Slaves

Slavery business generates $32 billion/yr for trafficers
78% of victims are in labour slavery
22% are in sex slavery!
To learn more about slavery click here to see a Slavery Fact Sheet prepared by Free the Slaves organization. It's only 2 pages illustrates the gravity of the problem. Copies can be made and shared with your fraternities. Visit their website to learn more about the organization.

Global Slavery Index - Walk Free Foundation

The Walk Free Foundation's mission is to end modern slavery in our generation by mobilising a global activist movement, generating the highest quality research, enlisting business and raising unprecedented levels of capital to drive change in those countries and industries bearing the greatest responsibility for modern slavery today.
The foundation has issued the The Global Slavery Index 2013, providing an estimate, country by country, of the number of people living in modern slavery today.

The intention is that Walk Free's Global Slavery Index will be updated annually to 1) produce the most detailed global picture of the numbers of enslaved people; 2) identify factors that shed light on the risk of modern slavery in each country and 3) examine the strength of government responses in tackling this issue.
Download the full report or an executive summary or explore findings from the 2013 Report by navigating the interactive map. Browse regional and country-level research and statistics examining the risks of modern slavery, current levels of government response and a set of recommendations that can effectively tackle modern slavery.
Modern Day Slavery - BBC,  22 November 2013
Horrors of India's brothels are documented.  BBC's recent article confirms that the horror of modern day slavery is still prolific in our world.    Read More

The author of the BBC article, photojournalist, Hazel Thompson, has produced this slideshow documentary giving us a sense of the horrors of this injustice.  Go to :  Slavery Then and Now
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Modern Slavery in India

A 2012 report prepared by Franciscan International gives an insight into the bonded labour market in India. This is a real eye opener...a must read!  Download the report (pdf).