The Salvation Army has launched a campaign to raise awareness of human trafficking at the World Cup.
Posted: Wednesday, June 14 , 2006, 8:20 (BST) Christianity Today
The Salvation Army has launched a campaign to raise awareness of human trafficking at the World Cup and make known that although prostitution may be legal in many parts of Germany, sex with a trafficked woman is 'rape'.
Moreover, UK citizens can be prosecuted for illegal sex acts such as sex with a trafficked woman in this country as well as abroad.
Volunteers for The Salvation Army travelled to Old Trafford for the England versus Hungary match and distributed around 10,000 postcards with hard-hitting slogans ‘You chose her. She definitely didn't choose you.' and ‘Offensive action? Does it offend you?' The postcards contain facts about trafficking as well as 24-hour helpline numbers for anyone who suspects a woman is trafficked and needs advice.
A UN report on human trafficking issued last month listed Germany as one of the top destinations for the women, mostly between 18 and 25, who are secreted across borders from countries like Russia, Ukraine, and Bulgaria. A 2005 US State Department found that Russia alone accounted for one-quarter of the 1,235 victims of forced prostitution reported in Germany in 2003.
The main venue in Berlin now has a 3000-metre fenced-in area filled with ‘performance boxes', equipped with condoms and showers.
The sex trade comprises the biggest proportion of the European trafficking industry, notes the National Board of Catholic Women in England and Wales.
Anti-sex slave activists point out that "trafficked women dare not speak about the physical, mental, emotional and spiritual violence done to them day after day."
In order to make fans aware of the situation and gain support on the issue, 40 Salvation Army volunteers from the UK travelled to Germany to distribute 90,000 postcards to World Cup fans in Germany.
"The Salvation Army wants to make people travelling to Germany this summer aware that if they choose to go to a brothel, they may be choosing to pay for sex with a trafficked woman. Sex with a trafficked woman is rape and is an illegal and immoral activity," commented Duncan Parker of The Salvation Army.
"Every year over 2 million people are trafficked across international borders for the purposes of exploitation, whether that be in the form of commercial sex, domestic service or manual labour. Many trafficked victims are stolen from their homes, many are sold by their families, and many are lured away from their homes by the prospect of a well-paid job or a better life in another country. All of these people are being exploited against their will."
Human trafficking is the third largest illegal industry in the world after the drugs and arms trade, with more than 2 million people trafficked every year.
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2 comments:
sex. . it takes over. I think that a huge part of the problem is that people don't understand it, so selfishness causes all kinds of abuse to flourish and the bigger the self gets, the more abusive the self becomes. . regarding no one but self, thinking of nothing but how to satisfy self. its so disturbing. .
you know this has been my heart since before coming to Bangor. To see people freed from Sex trafficking. To see lives totally transformed and saved.
It doesn't help that we've tamed down and glamorized the life of men and women caught in this web with movies like "Pretty Woman" and "Moulin Rouge" and "Memoirs of a Geisha"...they make it look like a life in prostitution is actually attractive. I've spent time with girls who sell themselves to support their 'boyfriends' and I'm telling you, the life is not attractive one bit....it's a life of abuse and mind games and literal torture in many cases.
One of our teens was joking around one night at Powerhouse, dancing around, saying "I've found my new calling in life" and laughing. I had to remind her that most girls who end up in prostitution and strip clubs don't live past the age of thirty. Sex is not a sport.
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