We Must Respond by Peter Stanley

Peter Stanley, April 28th, 2009

Imagine… you live in a family in a poor area of the world, say Moldova. Life is tough, very tough, because most people have left for other countries and there’s little work available. Somehow you all scrape by scratching for corn scraps in the corners of fields. Then you get a lucky break; a friend of your father has a job for your older sister selling ice cream in a place called England. She’ll be fine and will send money back to pay for all those things you’ve dreamed of.  A month later and your parents start worrying that they haven’t heard any news. Word goes round the village that the daughter has been sold into slavery, ‘trafficked’ as some call it. Mother is desperate, but there is nothing they can do.

Imagine… you live in Sheffield, England. You’ve seen stories about ‘people trafficking’ on the news and how young girls are sold into prostitution. But that’s pretty understandable in the third world where lives are cheap and where people are ignorant of the dangers. Your elder sister has been going out with her boyfriend now for a few months and he is treating her to all sorts of jewellery and trips in his flash car. There’s something a bit too intense about him, but he’s basically o.k. When your sister doesn’t come home one night, your mum rings round friends and blames herself for being too relaxed about her safety. Days go by and no-one has any idea where she’s got to. Police, schools, night clubs have all been visited. Could she have run away? Word goes round the street that your sister has been conned by her boyfriend, a so-called ‘lover boy’ who sold her to sex traffickers. Mother is desperate, but there is nothing they can do.  

Imagine… you are out for the evening with work friends; a curry and several drinks on ‘a fun night out with the lads.’ What next? It could be a club or a cinema or try a phone number in a free local paper advertising a night of female company. You give the number a try and a few mates join you. No harm done and no-one will see. What you don’t to realise is that the girl you spend a steamy half hour with is a girl from Moldova or Sheffield, desperately missing her parents and still in pain from the cigarette burns and other punishments from her trafficker.  

The Stark Truth
People trafficking, the buying and selling of children and young people, involves every country in the world - both rich and poor.  It is a bigger business than drug trafficking, Coca Cola and Microsoft (the fastest growing of the three largest illegal crimes, alongside arms and drugs and generates as much revenue for the traffickers as many of the world’s largest corporations)   Just two years after we celebrated the bicentenary of the abolition of slavery in the UK we are faced with the stark realisation that this horrific trade is not dead – it has simply gone underground.

50% of those trafficked are children. Jesus said, ‘let the little children come to me’ (Lk 18:16) and to all he proclaimed, ‘freedom for the prisoners’ (Lk 4:18). But most children are initially sold by family friends who they trust and often they go for less than the price of a hamburger.  How do you fight something so evil and widespread? How do we even begin to pray?

The task to fight human trafficking is only just seriously starting and not nearly enough is being done. Law enforcement worldwide struggles to tackle the problem as they lack a joint approach across borders. They fail to match the size, sophistication and flexibility of many trafficking gangs. The first stage, however, in fighting it is for the public as a whole to be aware of the issue and for it to become a concern at the government level. The UN are creating awareness as are many charities. Media is beginning to catch on too. At the front line, where traffickers buy, sell and abuse, there are growing numbers of charities conducting raids, intelligence sharing, prosecution and social care. Justice & Care, for example, has rescued over 100 victims and prosecuted over 50 traffickers a year in India, in the very same way that the film Slum Dog Millionaire depicts it.

What we can do…
It is not easy to offer direct support through involvement in front line organisations, as their work often involves personal danger and significant commitments of time. However, there are many ways to get involved in the overall fight and we can never underestimate the power of taking this to our Father in prayer.  Here are some very useful and accessible ways to get involved now:

1. Tell your friends
2. Be informed & link with awareness & community action organisations like Stop The Traffik, Hope For Justice and the UN Office on Drugs & Crime   
3. Report any suspicions of trafficking to Crime Stoppers International or your nearest authority
4. Support front line workers like Justice & Care, Jubilee Action, I.J.M and Preda interning, or fundraising for them
5. Set up a community group to tackle the issue yourself like the Croydon Community Action against Trafficking  
6. Join with friends and pray for a front line organisation.  Get in touch with them and offer regular prayer support.  
   

God has been speaking to the 24-7 Prayer movement about how we can respond to issues of injustice across the globe.  Human Trafficking and the sex industry has particularly been put on the hearts of many of our Boiler Rooms and 24-7 Communities.  Pray for us and watch this space as we explore ways to tackle issues like human trafficking prayerfully and how 24-7 Prayer could support those involved in tackling this injustice head on.