|More

 

Text

Translate

Disclaimer

This translation is not completely accurate as it was automatically generated by a computer.
Powered by

A UMNS Report
By Linda Bloom*

March 31, 2011 | NEW YORK (UMNS)

This woman in her early 20s was trafficked into a blue jean sweatshop, where she and other young women were locked in and made to work 20 hours a day, sleeping on the floor, with little to eat and no pay. She managed to escape and tell her story. A web-only photo by Kay Chermush, courtesy U.S. State Department.

When Maria, an Armenian citizen, ended up in Dubai, she resisted attempts by her traffickers to force her into prostitution.

In retaliation, they threw her off the top of a three-story building.

Maria survived the fall, eventually escaped her captors and was repatriated to Armenia, where police referred her to the Anti-Human Trafficking Project run by the United Methodist Committee on Relief.

To date, the UMCOR project has helped 93 women move on to new lives after becoming entangled in what is considered the second-largest and fastest-growing global criminal enterprise, said Kathryn Paik, UMCOR’s Armenia program officer.

Paik and two staff executives with United Methodist Women, Carol Van Gorp and Susie Johnson, spoke about how United Methodists are addressing the human trafficking problem during a March 28 panel discussion at the offices of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

United Methodist Women and its parent organization, the board’s Women’s Division, have focused on human trafficking for more than a decade and started the current campaign, “The Protection Project,” in 2009.

“Since the campaign, our trafficking team has educated and opened the eyes of over 7,500 people,” said Johnson, who spoke by phone from Washington, where she oversees public policy work for the division.

In south Asian society, Dalits — the lowest caste — often are strongly encouraged to weave so they can pay off their debt, but this only ensures their enslavement, sometimes for generations. A web-only photo by Kay Chermush, courtesy U.S. State Department.

The United Nations defines human trafficking as the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of people — by threat, abduction, deception or abuse of power — for the purpose of sexual or labor-related exploitation. Eighty percent of those trafficked are women and girls, and half of all trafficking victims are under the age of 13.

Providing shelter and support

UMCOR was the first nongovernmental organization to work with Armenian authorities in all regions of Armenia to reintegrate trafficking survivors back into society, Paik said.

At UMCOR’s shelter, survivors receive medical services, legal counseling, vocational training and psychosocial support. The length of stay varies by individual case, but about 90 percent of participants have successfully returned to society. “Shelter staff also have ongoing contact with the victims and their families,” Paik said.

But the successes are not without effort. “We have many challenges in Armenia for this program,” she explained. “The greatest is probably economic empowerment.”

Without other viable options for employment, it is difficult to break the cycle of trafficking. And societal changes are needed to address populations vulnerable to trafficking. In Armenia, for example, more than 10,000 “extremely vulnerable” children living in boarding schools and orphanages are often left without a home or social support as they grow older.

So, in addition to the shelter, UMCOR Armenia has established a toll-free anti-trafficking hotline, conducted awareness campaigns through presentations, community outreach and mass media, and advocated for victims’ rights.

Kathryn Paik, left, of the United Methodist Committee on Relief, and Carol Van Gorp of United Methodist Women, were part of a March 28 panel discussion and webcast on human trafficking in New York. A UMNS web-only photo courtesy of Board of Global Ministries.

In the United States, the Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 — also called TVPA — increased penalties to traffickers from five years to 20 years to life and mandated the creation of an interagency government task force that meets annually.

The State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons assesses and rates 194 countries each year to show whether problems of trafficking are being addressed. Countries that lag on the issue risk losing funding from the United States. Task forces coordinated by the Department of Justice link federal and local law enforcement officers to pursue traffickers.

The department’s “2010 Trafficking in Persons Report,” released last June, was the first to rank the United States alongside other nations.

On a denomination-wide level, General Conference, the church’s top legislative body, first adopted a resolution calling for the abolition of sex trafficking in 2004. The church also has supported “global efforts to end slavery” since 2000, and has long called for the eradication of abusive child labor.

Protection Project

For United Methodist Women, “The Protection Project” offers training to educate its members about human trafficking and offer practical suggestions for actions they can take in their own communities.

“The United States is one of the top three global destinations for human trafficking,” Johnson said. “We trained a handpicked team to recognize (trafficking) activity as modern-day slavery.” Building that awareness in the leadership team was the first step in educating the wider public about the problem.

The United Methodist Committee on Relief and United Methodist Women sponsored a March 28 webcast discussion on human trafficking. A UMNS web-only photo courtesy of UMCOR.

Van Gorp develops resources and leads workshops on the issue for UMW members. “The first thing we do is make people understand they are not all going to go out and do rescue missions,” she explained.

Instead, church members are educated about how to identify where trafficking victims may be working and how to interact with local law enforcement.

United Methodists can also advocate for better laws related to trafficking, support plans for more shelters and other programs for its victims, and investigate how immigration patterns and policies play a role in the problem, Van Gorp said.

The project gained larger visibility in January, when UMW used an event that all Americans have heard of — the Super Bowl — as a way to increase awareness, particularly among men. UMW members in Texas worked with local police, the courts and others to promote trafficking awareness during the pre-Super Bowl festivities.

Back in Armenia, Maria remains one of the success stories. “We heard she is now remarried and, as of last year, had a baby,” Paik reported.

Donations to the Armenia project can be made here.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.