wfn.org | LWI Council Press Release No. 11/2009 Call for Greater Public Awareness of Forced Labor and Human T

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>LWI Council Press Release No. 11/2009

Call for Greater Public Awareness of Forced Labor and Human
Trafficking 
ILO Specialist Says Tighter Law Enforcement Is Required 

GENEVA, 27 October 2009 (LWI) -  Representatives of
international and faith-based relief organizations attending the
Council of the Lutheran World Federation (LWF) emphasized that
wide-spread public awareness was necessary in order to tackle the
problems of forced labor and human trafficking.

"Upholding Human Dignity: Confronting Human Trafficking," is the
theme of the 22 to 27 October meeting of the LWF governing body,
attended by around 165 participants at Chavannes-de-Bogis near
Geneva, Switzerland.

Mr Roger Plant, head of the Special Action Programme to Combat
Forced Labour at the International Labour Organization ((ILO),
called for concrete legislative measures and stricter enforcement
of the existing laws of individual countries. He pointed out that
despite the great outcry against modern slavery the existing
legislative countermeasures were poorly enforced. Criminal law
and labor law needed to be brought into line. 

According to a first ILO report in 2005, an estimated 12.3
million people throughout the world were at the time victims of
forced labor, the majority of who (9.4 million) were in Asia. The
human trafficking industry alone generates estimated profits of
almost USD 32 billion per year. Plant urged churches to use their
influence to strengthen awareness in civil society about
injustice and to call upon their governments to take appropriate
measures. He confined himself to problems involving labor-related
exploitation. Numerically, human trafficking of women for sexual
exploitation is of greater magnitude, yet it also receives
greater public attention. 

Apart from the more brutal and dramatic instances of human
trafficking - for example, when refugees die of asphyxia in
freight containers - there were many subtler forms of  coercion.
According the ILO report "The Cost of Coercion," a growing number
of migrant workers were entrapped into slave-like conditions, as
labor brokers promising high wages lured these workers from their
home countries. Once abroad, they find themselves isolated,
vulnerable and helpless, unable to speak the foreign language and
heavily indebted. The passport they would need for the trip back
home is taken away from them. Employers and legal recruiters work
hand in hand in order to deceive workers. Low wages and poor
working conditions aside, forced labor is defined by the ILO as
"all work or service which is exacted from any person under the
menace of any penalty and for which the said person has not
offered himself voluntarily." This can also apply to legal work.

In the French-speaking part of Switzerland, the relief
organization Liberta has opened a hotline for persons seeking
help. Of the 118 calls received last year, 31 were cases of human
trafficking. Ms Ismaila Faye, head of the organization, reported
that a great stir was caused when they identified six cases of
sexual exploitation of women who had been brought legally into
the country by diplomats. The organization sees as its most
urgent task to heighten awareness among the population, in
particular among women and migrants, churches and relief
organizations, government bodies, media, police and customs
authorities. 

Ms Elena Timofticiuc, project manager for AIDRom (Ecumenical
Association of Churches in Romania), highlighted the social
consequences of migrant labor in Romania, often involving
coercion. Families fall apart, marriages break up, and children
are left behind. At least one parent of the 172,000 children
attending secondary school is working abroad. According to
Timofticiuc, both parents of 35,000 children aged between 10 and
14 years work abroad.

Rev. Sonia Skupch of the Evangelical Church of the River Plate,
Argentina, and an LWF Council member, presented a documentary
film on the topic of sexual exploitation, produced by the
Argentinean ecumenical relief organization for refugees and
migrants CAREF with support from the LWF. The film's core message
is "prostitution is not the oldest profession in the world, but
rather, the oldest form of abuse of women." 

Dr Fulata Lusungu Moyo, program executive for Women in Church
and Society at the World Council of Churches, focused on the
exploitation of women from a biblical perspective, saying that
women's bodies were not a commodity, but God’s likeness. As a
result, trafficking of women perverts the biblical and
humanitarian value of hospitality into its opposite - it is the
host who should afford protection and satisfy the needs of the
guest, not vice-versa. 

LWF General Secretary Rev. Dr Ishmael Noko, in a
thought-provoking conclusion, recalled that many high-ranking
church leaders, who understood work as a vocation and a blessing,
were unaware of the complex reality of slavery and exploitation.
Yet, examples of human trafficking could be found even in the Old
Testament. He suggested that "this can encourage us to read the
Bible with different eyes." (773 words)

More information on the 2009 LWF Council meeting is available on
the LWF Web site at: www.lutheranworld.org

>*      *      *

Around 75 representatives from LWF member churches and partner
organizations are attending this year's Council meeting at
Chavannes-de-Bogis near Geneva, Switzerland. An additional 90
registered participants include invited guests, stewards,
interpreters and translators, media persons and LWF staff. 

The 49-member Council is the LWF's governing body, meeting every
12-18 months between Assemblies held every six years. The current
Council was appointed at the July 2003 Tenth Assembly in
Winnipeg, Canada. It comprises the President, Treasurer as well
as lay and ordained persons, representing the different LWF
regions. 

The Council host church, the Federation of Evangelical Lutheran
Churches in Switzerland and the Principality of Liechtenstein has
6,818 members, and has been an LWF member church since 1979. It
is headed by Ms Dagmar Magold.

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>*      *      *

(The LWF is a global communion of Christian churches in the
Lutheran tradition. Founded in 1947 in Lund, Sweden, the LWF
currently has 140 member churches in 79 countries all over the
world, with a total membership of 68.5 million. The LWF acts on
behalf of its member churches in areas of common interest such as
ecumenical and interfaith relations, theology, humanitarian
assistance, human rights, communication, and the various aspects
of mission and development work. Its secretariat is located in
Geneva, Switzerland.)

[Lutheran World Information (LWI) is the LWF's information
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