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A word from Tim Costello
Human trafficking is a problem of global proportions, driven by poverty and neglect of human rights standards. It hijacks lives and creates untold misery. While it is most common in developing countries, where traffickers prey on victims who are desperate to overcome poverty, many victims of trafficking are also found in the developed world.
Youth speaks out
Mekong Youth Forum participants discussed strategies to prevent human trafficking with government officials.
At the 2007 Mekong Youth Forum on Human Trafficking, sponsored by World Vision, 30 young people - including some victims of trafficking from Myanmar, Cambodia, Laos, Thailand, Vietnam began a dialogue with government by voicing their concerns on human trafficking in their region. At the end of the forum, they had the rare opportunity to submit recommendations to regional government officials, which were taken to a higher level.
Watch movie
The scale of the problem is enormous. Trafficking enslaves well over 27 million people around the globe. Many are right at our backdoor – in the Asia-Pacific region. Whatever the exact figure, at World Vision we believe that one person trafficked is one person too many.
Men, women and children who are trafficked into labour suffer in many ways – wrenched from their homes and families, forced to work in hazardous and exhausting conditions. They may be unpaid or sold into virtual slavery, beaten or starved. It is a moral blight on our society today.
I recently visited Ghana and the Ivory Coast in Africa, where World Vision was looking at child exploitation in the cocoa industry. In the Ivory Coast alone, it is estimated that more than 600,000 children work in the cocoa fields. Some reports indicate up to 85% of these children are doing hazardous work and more than half don't go to school. It is on the backs of these children that we get the cocoa that's used in many of the chocolate brands we consume.
The good news is that together we can stop the trade in human lives. Little by little, we are making progress. But there is much more to be done.
Please join us in the fight to end this global injustice.
Tim Costello
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