What is good - human rights charitys

International trafficking

Sexual trafficking is the movement of human beings for sexual exploitation. It is defined in international law by the United Nations Protocol to prevent, suppress and punish trafficking in persons especially women and children (2000) commonly known as the Palermo Protocol.

Sex trafficking involves the recruitment and transportation of persons by means of threats, force, other means of coercion, deception or the abuse of power. The Palermo Protocol urges each country to provide for the physical, psychological and social recovery of victims of trafficking, including in appropriate cases the granting of a residency permit, appropriate housing, medical help and counselling. The UK ratified the Palermo Protocol in February of this year. The Council of Europe Convention on Action against trafficking in human beings (CETS No: 197 (2005) seeks to implement and develop support to victims of trafficking. The UK has yet to sign the treaty for this.

International organized crime is behind this trade, with small cartels and sophisticated networks ranging across Europe, Africa, Russia and Asia, Women, young men and children are treated as sexually exploitatable booty.

A sex-trafficked woman, child or young man will encounter at least one of these degradations during the course of their trafficking ordeal – they will

• be deceived or duped by a relative or informal family contact – often previously subjected to sexual abuse or domestic violence
• be intimidated and humiliated, drugged or beaten
• be held hostage
• be sold on
• endure rape from their pimps
• be forced to have sex with others for money – sometimes 10-15 times a day
• attempt self harm
• lose their identity – have their passport and travel papers removed

In country trafficking In the UK this includes sophisticated methods of targeting girls as young as 11 or 12. Younger men, often teenagers themselves, will befriend girls in places where young people naturally congregate – such as shopping malls, video arcades, fast food outlets, parks or even outside schools. Children from any background can be targeted. The girls are then passed up the hierarchy and may be entangled in violent sexual abuse, in flats or other places by the time they are 13. There are few prosecutions, despite its being plainly against the law. It is very difficult to quantify the extent of this scandal, but in one region of England alone in the past 3 years over 100 families have been devastated by what has happened to their daughter. We believe that these figures are indicative of a far bigger problem. For further information on in country trafficking do be in touch with our sister charity CROP

Trafficked persons are victims of crime and violation of their human dignity. Sex trafficking is a worldwide crime and it is almost always a form of organised crime. Traffickers face few risks and can earn huge profits by taking advantage of large numbers of poor vulnerable people.

Trafficking generates vast wealth for criminals across the globe. Women, children and young men are exploited, deceived, enslaved and transported across national boundaries in order to supply a market which is growing in the countries of the developed world. Traffickers use the desire for travel, economic migration, adventure, new opportunities to entice vulnerable people into a movement across borders where their freedom and autonomy is erased. The situation is made worse by women's gendered lack of power in their own communities and the acceptance of sexual exploitation in countries across the globe as prostitution.

Further disenfranchisment takes place through restricted legal movement into the EU, where passports are removed, false identities given, threats made concerning the nature of the legal authorities in the country of destination. Furthermore the West's substantially unregulated sex industry leaves this abusive trade in bodies and lives developing in the shadows of our societies.

What some of our clients have said

“My boyfriend, well he brought me to Italy with two friends of his. He said it would be better for us in Italy. The night after we arrived he drove me to this area on the outskirts of the city (Naples) and told me to start working. There was nothing I could do. He and his two friends were watching me, making sure I did my work. After a year they said we are going to the UK, as they could make more money here. I didn’t want to have sex with all the men who came – there were sometimes 20 or more a day – but I was beaten if I didn’t work. In the end you just don’t care.. but now I am pregnant and I want to look after her or him. He/she is the only person I have in the world to love.”
Chaste Client

The reasons for the trade are complex, but the bottom line is simple. Communities of resistance are required at every level to combat this trade, and the churches are an obvious moral community to develop some of the modes of resistance and change.