Human trafficking grabs attention of area churches

It has been five years since President Bush signed the U.S. Child Protect Act and urged the United Nations to make combatting illegal sex tourism and trafficking a priority.

“The victims of sex trade see little life before they see the very worse of life; an underground of brutality and lonely fear,” President Bush said at the time. “Those who create these victims and profit from their suffering must be severely punished.”

But three years later, the arrest of a 41-year-old American school teacher, John Mark Karr, in Thailand showed that the child sex industry continues to thrive.

Karr attracted international media attention not because of his arrest on sex charges, but because he claimed to have killed JonBenet Ramsey, the 6-year-old beauty queen who was found bludgeoned in her Colorado home. Karr’s claim turned out to false, and JonBenet’s 14-year-old murder still has not been solved.

In an editorial on the school teacher’s arrest we suggested that the children of Thailand could benefit from the press attention. But we also included this proviso: “That’s assuming, of course, the international community has not lost its sense of outrage in the face of clear acts of inhumanity.”

Fortunately, there is a growing sense of outrage over the whole issue of human trafficking — as reported in a story on the front page of Thursday’s Vindicator.

Eye-opening stats

The story offered these jarring statistics from the U.S. State Department: 800,000 people are moved by human traffickers across international boundaries each year; millions of others are forcibly transported within their own countries; there are 20,000 victims in the United States.

The state department notes that human trafficking involves sexual exploitation and/or forced labor.

Most underdeveloped countries like Thailand and India are breeding grounds for this lucrative business.

But Thursday’s story also showed that there is hope — because of various campaigns, such as the one by the American Baptist Women’s Ministries. The three-year project is called “Break the Chains, Slavery in the 21st Century,” and the ABWM hopes to raise $250,000 by the end of 2009 to finance the endeavor.

The Trumbull Baptist Association, which includes 16 area churches, held a dinner meeting Wednesday at which Judy Douglas, state coordinator for missions and services in Ohio for the ABWM, provided insight into the human trafficking industry.

U.S. Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice has called it “the slave trade of the modern world.”

Douglas offered this poignant observation within the context of the three fastest growing crimes in the word, drugs, arms dealing and the sex trade: “Drugs and weapons may be sold once; bodies can be sold daily. Surely God weeps when he sees this.”

She did acknowledge the enthusiasm and eagerness of the Trumbull Baptist Association.

“They’re gung-ho about the project. I think it’s because the victims are so young ... girls as young as 10 ... 13 ... are sold.”

But there is a reality that the churchwomen will confront as they delve into the issue: men from rich countries are the ones keeping the child sex industry alive.

From 2003 to 2006, 20 Americans were prosecuted under the Child Protect Act for engaging in illicit sexual conduct in foreign places.

The case of Erik Prowler illustrates what is taking place.

He was deported from Thailand after completing a one-year sentence for molesting 15-year-old and 16-year-old boys. He told authorities he often paid Thai children the equivalent of $5 for two hours of sexual conduct.

Such preying on the poor is what makes the whole issue of human trafficking all the more egregious.