By Mary O’Herron – JPIC Staff and Br Michael Tembo OMI, Intern JPIC
At
a just ended summer fellowship immigration and refugee policies, held on June 4th,
2014 in Washington DC, one participant expressed pain on how human beings are
not respected and are victims of human trafficking. The participant asked, ‘what has gone wrong
with this generation?’ Many people, especially
the youth have become victims of human trafficking.
Pope
Francis in speaking against abuse of human beings said, “Young people at the
moment are in crisis. We have all become accustomed to this disposable culture.
We do the same thing with the elderly, but with all these people out of work
even they are afflicted by a culture where everything is disposable. We have to
stop this habit of throwing things away. We need a culture of inclusion.”
Mary
O’Herron,[1]
whose passion is being the voice against human trafficking, has this to say:
“As
an employee of the Oblate JPIC Office in Washington, DC, I spend some time on
human trafficking or modern day slavery. I see more people been enslaved now
than at any time in history and the number is rising – over 21 million. Trafficking
rivals drugs and arms as the most lucrative form of illegal gain.”
Certainly, human
trafficking is a global concern. People are trafficked from one country to
another and within borders of countries. As many have said, the US is usually a
destination country – for both the sex industry and labor.
Generally, people
are tricked into being trafficked by being promised some help and or a good
wage for interesting work somewhere else and then brought into submission by
very harsh measures. Few escape.
Current slavery is
much less visible than in previous eras – it could even be going on next door
or around the corner. People trafficked now are used up and thrown away – not
like in previous times where slaves were expensive to buy. As bad as it was
then, it is worse now. The Internet and ease of travelling have also
contributed to the rise of trafficking. And it continues to rise – even with
many organizations trying to combat it.
The OMI-JPIC Office will
not tire in spreading the word about human trafficking in our newsletter,
website, and other means. We join with other groups like the Coalition of Catholic
Organizations Against Human Trafficking sponsored by the US Conference of
Catholic Bishops.
We work with corporations
that might contribute to trafficking -- like hotels and airlines to ask them to
be watchful and to educate employees about trafficking. Also, we look at supply
chains of companies to try to eliminate labor practices that are unjust and detrimental.
The Oblates, along with
other religious groups, are members of the NGO section of the United Nations
and through this vehicle work against trafficking.
More information how to
get involved to stop human trafficking; visit www.omiusa jpic.org/humantrafficking
[1] Mary
O’Herron - Associate for General Administration JPIC Service and Corporate
Responsibility. Mary works part time to assist with corporate
responsibility efforts in the JPIC Office, and also focuses on the issue of
human trafficking.
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