Eradicating the “heinous crime” of human trafficking requires cracking down on those who profit from it, said a Vatican diplomat.
The Vatican urged nations “to recognise trafficking in human beings as one of the most heinous crimes” and to recognise “their moral duty to address it properly and indeed eradicate it,” said Mgr Janusz Urbanczyk, the Vatican’s permanent representative to the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe.
He made his comments5, during a meeting of OSCE in Vienna. OSCE includes 57 countries in Europe, Central Asia and North America.
In his talk, Mgr Urbanczyk said greater attention should be given to eradicating the trafficking and enslavement of children.
Children can be ensnared by traffickers when they are “enslaved and fall prey to exploitation as child labourers or soldiers, fall into the criminal network of drug trafficking or into the mire of pornography,” he said. When children are forced to flee from conflict and persecution, they also risk isolation and abandonment.
“This already bleak scenario is made worse” he said, by people’s demand – even in the OSCE region – for goods and services linked to child slavery since it is the demand that “drives their exploitation and abuse.”
“Thus, the only way to stop the multiple forms of child slavery effectively is to take more rigorous and effective actions against those who profit from such abuse,” he said.
He thanked those who are working to end this “social cancer,” calling it “one of the greatest scourges and challenges of our time.” By Carol Glatz Catholic News Service
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