Caritas on anti-trafficking conference: need to re-humanize society

(Vatican Radio)  The Secretary General of Caritas Internationalis, Michel Roy, said the incidence of human trafficking is on the rise worldwide and stressed the need "to re-humanize our society." He said the scourge of trafficking is increasing for a number of reasons, including growing poverty and increased secularization and the accompanying decline in morality and ethics that this brings.  Roy’s comments came at an international conference against human trafficking held in the Nigerian capital, Abuja. The three day conference was co-organized by the Pontifical Council of Pastoral Care for Migrants and Itinerant People and Caritas Internationalis as one of the members of the COATNET network (Christian Organizations against Trafficking in Human Beings). Roy was interviewed by Susy Hodges.

Listen to the interview with Michel Roy of Caritas Internationalis: 

Hosted by Caritas Nigeria, the conference was aiming to create stronger links between concerned parties, promote joint actions and share best practices of combating trafficking and slavery while offering assistance and giving hope to victims. Nigeria is one of the countries most badly affected by the scourge of human trafficking with hundreds or even thousands of people deceived and sold into slavery each year, especially into prostitution.

When it comes to Nigeria, Roy described how there is “a lot more public awareness” about the dangers of human trafficking than in the past but it still tends to be a problem that is not openly talked about much in society.  He said one of the ways Caritas and other charitable organizations are trying to tackle problem is to make the families (of potential trafficking victims) aware of what is going on through information campaigns.

Roy said he believes the incidence of human trafficking is “probably getting worse in the whole world” and said this is due to a variety of factors. This includes a growing impoverishment due to the effects of globalization, the prices of commodities going down and “increased secularization and the lack of morality and ethics” arising from this phenomenon that prompts people to “make money” out of the poor and vulnerable.

“We need to re-humanize society,” he declared, describing it as "a big challenge."