News
St. Leo's Parish Hosts Talk On Human Trafficking
By Judy O'Gorman Alvarez
MIDDLETOWN - Rep. Christopher H. Smith (R-NJ) came to the Church of Saint Leo the Great R.C. in Lincroft on Tuesday night to address a topic of growing concern but often not in the front of many New Jersey residents' minds--human trafficking. "There are 100,000 juveniles on the street being bought and sold ever year," he says. "The average age is 13, mostly runaways."
Congressman Smith was joined by Sundy Goodnight, national campaign director, for STCNow - Stop Child Trafficking Now - as they spoke about the prevalence of human trafficking throughout the world, the plight of its victims - children, women and men - and how it is going on right here in the U.S., perhaps in our own neighborhoods.
"It's important for us to know that something as atrocious as this happens in this day and age," says Sister Ann Barry, coordinator of the parish's Social Concerns Committee. The committee declared this Lenten season as a time to raise awareness in the community about human trafficking. "I thought slavery ended with the Emancipation Proclamation," she says. In addition to slavery in the sex trade, human trafficking includes domestic slavery and child labor abuses. "I found that most people in the U.S. don't know it's going on."
The statistics are shocking: 2.5 million children are bought and sold for sex each year. Human trafficking is the world's s second largest criminal enterprise, after drugs and weapons. The U.S. is the No. 1 destination for child trafficking.
The details are brutal: young girls in poor countries promised lucrative work in another country are tricked into slavery, sometimes with their unknowing parents approval. Runaways - some right here in the U.S. - lured and befriended are then held in bondage. And then there's the recent case of Shaniya Davis - the five-year-old N.C. girl whose own mother sold her to a man who raped and killed her.
It's dark, shocking and disturbing.
"While [some] organizations focus on rescuing children, until the demand side is addressed, the supply will always exist," says Goodnight. Her organization, SCTNow, targets the predators who drive the sex industry. Special Operative Teams - specially trained elite operatives - "infiltrate, investigate and bring to justice the predators victimizing children worldwide."
Smith, who has represented the Fourth Congressional District of New Jersey since 1981, has been active in human rights, religious freedom, and health care, and is the prime sponsor of the Victims of Trafficking and Violence Protection Act of 2000.
The reasons for the scourge are plentiful: organized crime; the break up of the Soviet Union, which allowed traffickers to profit in prostitution; the Internet which makes access too easy; the lax punishment, and more. "Human trafficking has always been around," he says. But unlike a drug and its one-time use, traffickers in the sex trade can re-use and re-exploit women."
According to Smith, there are three ways people can work to combat the problem: prevention - reaching out to high schools, and even junior high schools, on a peer to per level; prosecution - including life imprisonment for people convicted of trafficking; and protection, such as shelters - worldwide - so victims have a place to go.
In addition, global measures should continue to be put in place, such as the International Megan's Law, which would require convicted sex traffickers and offenders to provide advance notice of international travel, and prevent entry into the U.S. by any foreign sex offender against a minor.
"The fight to bring awareness has been slow," he says. Sometimes people have a moment where they decide to get involved. "When you say: I'm not walking away from this. We've got to do something." For Congressman Smith, it was hearing victims' testimony that convinced him to be a champion for change.
The audience -- a range of old and young, men and women -- was attentive and at times, shocked. "I came because I have four daughters and Sister Ann's message touched me," says Caroline Ftizgerald. To think about young girls - her daughters' ages -- being subjected to such treatment was incentive enough to inspire Fitzgerald to get involved. "To learn that it is so widespread, and happening here in our country - was shocking. I wanted to know what we can do."
Many attendees were interested in organizing a local SCTNow walk in October to raise awareness and donations.
"These victims - especially the children - are our brothers and sisters and we need to care for them," says Sister Ann. "We need to be aware, and to free the captives, as it says in Scripture. We alone can't be the solution, but we can part of the solution."
For more information, visit Stop Child Trafficking Now at www.sctnow.org
