Those of us who conduct educational seminars and speak at national programs about human trafficking frequently are asked, "Why should we care?" "Why would Catholic health care become involved?" and, in the context of immigration, "What is the relationship between immigration and trafficking?" These are the right questions, and now is the right time to lay out the answers, in the hope that others in the health care ministry will recognize the need and opt to develop their own strategies to combat human trafficking. ENORMITY OF THE PROBLEM In his letter welcoming readers to the U.S. State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report 2013, Luis CdeBaca, ambassador-at-large to monitor and combat trafficking in persons, writes, "Because reporting is uneven, we can't say for certain how many victims of trafficking are identified each year. This Report estimates that, based on the information governments have provided, only around 40,000 victims have been identified in the last year. In contrast, social scientists estimate that as many as 27 million men, women, and children are trafficking victims at any given time."1 Those numbers alone should be persuasive enough for us to realize that we must care. There are other numbers that underscore the enormity of the problem, such as these from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime's Global Report on Trafficking in Persons 2012.2 -Revenues generated annually by human trafficking are in excess of $32 billion, on the verge of surpassing the drug trade as the most lucrative organized crime in the world -At least 136 nationalities were trafficked, with victims found in at least 118 countries -75 percent of trafficking victims are female of all ages -27 percent of trafficking victims are children -Trafficking for sexual exploitation represents 58 percent of victims -Trafficking for forced labor exploitation represents 26 percent of victims ROLE OF RELIGIOUS CONGREGATIONS Certainly, the history of so many of the founding congregations of Catholic health ministry in the U.S. has set a precedent for the work against trafficking. It is not a coincidence that so much of the exemplary work done to date around the globe has been done by congregations of religious women. In the U.S., Catholic health care has a wonderful and courageous legacy, beginning with the 1727 journey of the Ursuline sisters from France to New Orleans to care for those afflicted by cholera. A hallmark of the religious congregations has been one of courage, a "rage of the heart," a willingness to traverse new horizons, to respond to and serve human need and to uphold the value and dignity of each human person. Available: https://www.chausa.org/docs/default-source/health-progress/human-trafficking--why-catholic-health-care-commits-to-the-fight.pdf?sfvrsn=4
Language: en
LA - en SN - 0882-1577 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -