Madam Chairperson,

1. The trade in human beings, especially of women and minors, has become a powerful global business involving many countries of origin, transit and destination. The victims of trafficking in persons are estimated at almost three million a year, a lucrative trade that generates an annual income of over thirty billion U.S. dollars. After a risky journey, these women and minors become bonded to their masters as slaves with passports and personal documents seized and a sense of identity destroyed. What is new is the globalization of this trade, the development of a global market which exploits the extreme poverty and vulnerability of many women and minors who try to escape intolerable conditions of misery and violence.

The consequences of this enslavement are a loss of psycho-physical identity, of personal dignity and freedom. In this systemic violation of human rights, in particular, a woman comes to consider herself as an object, a thing, a piece of merchandise and is forced to live as an illegal, a social and cultural outcast, emptied by sexual abuse of her deepest values, her femininity, self-esteem and her concept of love and life. Such degradation stifles any dream of a bright future.

To read Msgr. Tomasi`s statement in its entirety, please see the pdf below.

Holy see statement of human trafficking (129.28 KB)