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The Augustinian Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign ended December 31, 2011. But human trafficking is still a sad reality. These pages will continue to be available, in the hope that they will help you to be more aware of the reality of human trafficking and will encourage you to support actions which will reduce or eliminate these violations of human life and dignity.

Augustinian Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign

World Cup Soccer Championship and Exploitation

Everyone expected it!

If we didn’t expect it, there was at least a great fear over some issues related to the Treatment of Persons during the World Cup Soccer Championship in South Africa.

Let’s kick-out the Treatment of Persons! This was the slogan intended to help prevent what was feared to happen during the most important world sporting event of the year. With this kind of publicity the hope was that another new occasion for sexual slavery and exploitation of women, children and marginalized persons could be avoided.

You must keep in mind that the South African borders, like those of the rest of Africa are very porous, thus easy to pass through. Remember, too, that there are no laws against the Treatment of Persons. The fact that schools would be closed also favored this criminal activity as would the arrival of a half-million foreign fans.

THE ‘TALITHA-KUM’ RELIGIOUS SISTERS

The “Talitha-kum” sisters initiated their project a month before the opening of the World Cup Soccer Championship. They took advantage of the presence of a large number of superiors general who participated in the meeting of the International Union of Superiors General (U.I.S.G.).

The members of the International Organization for Migration (O.I.M.) also met. O.I.M., an intergovernmental entity that unites 127 countries of the world, participated in the presentation to the U.I.S.G.

HOW DID THEY LAUNCH THIS INITIATIVE?

The religious drafted four letters addressed to local religious leaders, soccer fans, potential victims and unknowing collaborators of the market for sex and the exploitation of persons. By way of the radio, parishes and other centers this message was spread throughout South Africa, the border countries and countries of origin of the expected victims of such Treatment.

The country under greatest risk of exploitation was Thailand, above all its rural and unprotected zones due to the poverty there. In Nigeria, the warnings were issued by way of the major soccer teams in local championships.

DO SPORTS FAVOR HUMAN DIGNITY OR DO THEY FAVOR EXPLOITATION AND THE TREATMENT OF PERSONS?

It would seem that sports are a moment of encounter among persons; a time for fun, for wonder, for demonstrating talent and skill, for peace. We remember the ancient Greek Olympics.

Today, however, this is just a nice memory. The fans, although they enjoy themselves -- and they should enjoy themselves -- don’t have to get to the point of disrespecting the human dignity of others. This respect should remain above everything else because it is an essential part of being human.

Soccer, or any sport, is a secondary element in our lives, which can serve to bring together and unite people. Sports should help to protect and develop an understanding of human dignity.

FEARS AND REALITY; WHAT’S GOING ON?

It’s true that there was a lot of fear, because of the tendency to convert great sports events, where there is a massive number of people, into an occasion of exploitation and slavery of the most vulnerable which usually are among the most needy -- women and children usually.

The World Cup offers an opportunity to contract many workers. However, at times, offers of a job which appear favorable, turn out to be false. Those who accept such contracts may be deceived and become victims of various forms of exploitation.

Newspapers are not talking about the back-room shrewdness which exists around all that is going on behind the running of the world soccer championship. There is a kind of conspiracy of silence, but the truth is that the sex market is running strong and the Treatment of Persons also has its victims in South Africa.

Television is silent on the issue, as well. It appears that all that matters is who is winning and who is eliminated. The winning countries become a legend and their players gods.

Meanwhile, the cry of the poor stays silent and no one raises their voice to be heard. Could it be we’ve lost our human sensitivity?

The Gospel should help us center our lives around what is essential, around the love of our neighbor, especially the most poor and abandoned, and this even if it has to do with World Soccer.

CONGRATULATIONS!

Africa deserves this celebration and Africans should be proud of it. It is the first time that the World Cup Soccer Championship is celebrated on the continent. Congratulations!

More from the Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign

       » Augustinians Launch Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign
             Nature, extent, causes and consequences of the trafficking of people

       » Human Trafficking and Illegal Trafficking of People
             How the two differ, along with some statistics

       » Restavecs: Duplicity in the Trafficking of Children
             Illegal trafficking of children in Haiti 2010

       » No One’s Daughters - The Nameless Girls
             Trafficking of orphans in Europe (I)

       » Teens Working the Streets
             Trafficking of orphans in Europe (II)

       » Facing the Influx of Young Immigrants
             How Malta’s Millennium Chapel Ministers to Newly Arrived Youths

       » Trafficking in Asia and the Pacific
             How human trafficking supports prostitution in this region of the world

       » Refugees - But How Many Are There?
             U.N.H.C.R. Global Trends report

       » Human Trafficking Prayer
             Suggested ways to pray for victims of human trafficking and for an end to this injustice

Additional Resources

       » U.N.O.D.C. on Human Trafficking and Migrant Smuggling (Opens new window)
             Resources from the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime

       » Blue Heart Campaign (Opens new window)
             An awareness raising initiative to fight human trafficking and its impact

       » Empowerment Through Knowledge (Opens new window)
             A Web resource for combatting human trafficking

       » Human Trafficking (Opens new window)
             Facts and resources for emergency health care providers

       » International Organization for Migration (Opens new window)
             Promoting international cooperation to help ensure the orderly and humane management of migration

       » Federal Bureal of Investigation: Human Trafficking (Opens new window)
             Human Trafficking in the U. S. A. and how the F. B. I. works to stop it

       » Trafficking in Persons Report 2009: U.S. Department of State (Opens new window)
             Most comprehensive worldwide report on efforts of governments to combat trafficking

       » U.S.C.C.B. Response to Human Trafficking (Opens new window)
             How the Catholic Church combats this modern-day form of slavery

This page offers one of a series of bulletins from the international Augustinian Secretariate for Justice and Peace. It explains some aspects of human trafficking, a pervasive violation of Catholic Christian morality that has received little attention from news media in the United States.

Human trafficking is sin against human dignity and human life. Christians today are called to be aware of the suffering and harm that human trafficking causes, and to act in support policies and initiatives that will eliminate or reduce this evil. (See Matthew 25: 31-46) The Augustinian Secretariate, committed to assisting Augustinian friars and others in acquiring a greater awareness of the nature, extent, causes and consequences of the trafficking of people, has started a Human Trafficking Awareness Campaign for the years 2009 - 2011.