25 August 2009
Abstract:
My ministry group (John, Ashley, Hannah and myself) has been focusing on doing work related to human trafficking, i.e. modern day slavery, the dehumanization of children and young women for financial or social gain. We have been focusing on raising awareness in the areas of Cape Town we are closest to; in Muizenberg, Kalk Bay, Fish Hoek, Capricorn, and Masipumalele. We are working with established organizations that are combating trafficking, blessing them by doing things they need done. I plan to have a presentation on human trafficking, in South Africa specifically, and a something on the work my group has done.
Micah 6:8 – “He has told you, O man, what is good; and what does the Lord require of you but to do justice, and to love [mercy], and to walk humbly with your God?”
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Trafficking is much older than the 2000 United Nations Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, especially Women and Children, that addressed this emerging injustice known as “trafficking.” Now, there are a lot of documents about trafficking, from intergovernmental organizations like IOM (the International Organization for Migration), from non-governmental organizations like the Cape Town based Justice ACTs or Molo Sangoglolo. Plenty of literature, information, booklets have been produced to inform people who are at risk of being trafficked and many more people who are not really at risk.
Because the thing about trafficking is it nearly always involves deception on the part of the trafficker and willful agreement on the part of the person being trafficked.
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Saartjie Baartman is probably the most famous victim of human trafficking in history. (If you are like me, you had never heard the name before; I was too young in 1994 to know anything that was happening in the news, so maybe some of you remember this....) Dr. William Dunlop, a surgeon from England visiting Cape Town on business or holiday, approached Saartjie Baartman with promises of fame and riches away from her home and job in Cape Town, I think most people would accept an offer like this if we were employed as servants on a farm, or whatever the modern equivalent would be.
When Saartjie Baartman got to London, William Dunlop made a show exhibiting Saartjie nude, for the admission price of one shilling. She died six years after leaving Cape Town, discarded by her trafficker, alone in France. This happened in 1810 (Trafficking Report 3rd Ed., IOM, 2003).
Trafficking is not a new problem – although as it gains exposure in media it may be the new fad issue that is cool to be angry and upset about. In some way it is easy to say what trafficking is: human trafficking is slavery, with a slight twist. It is as simple as that. People who have been trafficked were promised a fame, money, a great job, or even just a better job in a romanticized city. What they get from their traffickers is an addiction to heavy drugs, a demand to work as a prostitute or a domestic servant in horrific working circumstances, or hawking candy in the city. The traffickers do not pay their victims, but withhold money by saying the victim owes thousands of dollars, and the work they are forced to do is to pay that debt back. The traffickers, especially in regards to sex work, threaten the victims by saying their families will be hurt. The girls, women and little boys trafficked for sex work are raped and beat and threatened and demeaned until their spirits are broken and they stop fighting. Then any client can use them without resistance.
Where trafficking gets not-so-simple is the fact that slavery is illegal, and traffickers know what they are doing is promoting slavery. The whole trade has to go underground, and that makes it hard to get a lot of solid evidence or statistics. And that makes human trafficking difficult to talk about.
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Estimates on human trafficking numbers worldwide are all over the place. The International Labour Organization says 1,800,000 children are exploited through prostitution and pornography. Every year (Bill H2737, Child Protection Compact Act of 2009, p.3). I have heard numbers ranging from around one million children and young women in forced sex work and pornography to as many as hundreds of millions. But no traffickers are going to give quarterly and yearly reports about their sales and figures and dealings. So the best the government and trafficking assistance IGOs and NGOs have to work from are well educated guesses based on cases they know that have been dealt with. One word sums this all up: Hectic.
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IOM is an intergovernmental organization with especially strong presence in Southern Africa. The IOM has trafficking helplines set up that victims or people who suspect a case of trafficking can call for free in a number of African nations, including South Africa, Angola, Democratic Republic of Congo, Mozambique, Zambia, and Zimbabwe. The IOM made posters to raise awareness about trafficking and spread the helpline number. The posters are eye catching, very well designed, high quality. I have seen them around the country. The first thing I noticed at the customs check in at Cape Town airport was these IOM posters. I am sure these posters have helped spread the helpline number.
And then my team met with an IOM staff person, a women who works in the Cape Town office. She told us the helpline gets only 2000 calls a year, and of those 40 are trafficking related. 40 calls about trafficking out of a country of almost 48 million, with thousands of trafficking victims in South Africa alone, and only 40 calls trafficking related per year. Unbelievable. The helpline number has to be known by more than 2000 people, and surely by more than 40 people who have some knowledge of trafficking. But it's not being used that much.
And again, we come to the aspect of trafficking that could be hard to discern. Justice ACTs talks about four sort of phases of trafficking: tricked, transported, trapped, and used. Tricked and transported are two phases that might not be clear, and tricked is where traffickers get their sources of livelihood. By and large trafficking victims are not kidnapped or forced to go anywhere against their will. They are only held against their will once they are far from home. They trick victims by offering good jobs, travel, something good far from home. The majority of the people in Southern Africa dream of the propositions children and young women are getting from traffickers. Few would think to check deep into who the traffickers say they are or try to notice anything fishy about the situation. There are so many components working in favor of traffickers and against prime victims.
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So that is just part of what I have learned and unpacked about human trafficking. The more I think about it, the more I realize this is so huge and beyond me and I ask “What can I really do?” As much as organizations like IOM and IJM and Justice ACTs have done to raise awareness in South Africa, trafficking is still not really known about or understood. My team will continue working to raise awareness locally. And not only awareness, but some way to respond, to act, to see this specific injustice stopped. We want to see the church engaged and mobilized, living out Micah 6:8 and all of Isaiah 58. And I think one piece of that will be in ministry focused toward human trafficking.
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So my prayer points for this week are human trafficking related:
Pray against trafficking as this is clearly a scheme of the enemy. In the Bible God talks extensively about orphans, about the fatherless, about people who cannot defend themselves or cry for help. The Devil would like nothing more than to keep young people away from any place they can be discipled and follow God.
Pray for traffickers to come to repentance and turn around from destroying young innocent lives for their personal profit. Pray for ex-traffickers who will be instrumental in bringing trafficking to an end worldwide.
Pray for women and children who are trapped to be freed, to find in Christ both healing for themselves and forgiveness for their traffickers. Pray that trafficking victims will not stay silent but will become a voice for the voiceless...
Lastly, there is a bill going through the House of Representatives right now, the Child Protection Compact Act of 2009, H.R. 2737. I have read through the act, and it could definitely help a country like South Africa that is busy putting forward legislation that specifically and thoroughly addresses the legal precedings regarding trafficking of persons. Congress is making a good effort, and this would be something good to read through and weigh and pray into. If you feel an importance weighed on you, right to your representative. I have already done so.
That is that for now. Hope to fill you in on more soon. Thank you,
Grace and peace in Christ Jesus,
Christopher
P.S. I love you all. = )
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