Under the radar

Horrifying life-and-death issues from abortion to terrorism capture our daily attention in the headlines. As a result, a very serious topic has slipped by most people. But the Catholic Church is picking up a lot of the slack.

The issue is human trafficking, a term that covers sexual slavery and slave labor. It is a crime that has spread to nearly every country in the world, according to a new report by the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime.

"There's been a really significant upswing in the response by the Catholic Church and other churches," said Mary DeLorey, Catholic Relief Services adviser on Latin American issues, in an interview with Catholic News Service (CNS).

When victims of trafficking get away from the criminal organizations that have enslaved them, "they need a secure place," and it is often provided by churches, she added.

The U.S. State Department estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across national borders worldwide every year, with between 14,500 and 17,500 entering the United States. If those trafficked within their own countries are added, the total increases to between two million and four million.

CNS reports that traffickers prey on people who live in desperate poverty or who have been uprooted by violence or natural disasters. Children orphaned by AIDS, refugees from wars and earthquakes, and the desperately poor are among the prime targets of traffickers.

"People are going to make desperate choices that they know to be dangerous, and other people are going to profit off that," DeLorey said. "If you care about trafficking, you've got to care about economic policies. You've got to care about trade policy that displaces people. You've got to care about providing for aid in emergencies. You've got to care about migration policy. They're not divorced from each other."

(6/8/06)