Byrnesys Blabberings

Here are some excerpts from a newspaper article on John Miller who has been working for the US Government in investigating human trafficking, some revealing insights into a poverty our culture is ignoring, Read the Full Story HERE, HT: Protest4

Miller, a former Republican congressman from Seattle, has traveled the world as the head of the State Department’s office to monitor and combat human trafficking. But after visiting 50 countries since 2002, pleading his case with crown princes and prime ministers and meeting, by his count, more than 1,000 survivors of 21st-century slavery, Miller is moving on.

As he leaves to take a job as a professor at George Washington University, Miller said the human-trafficking problem can be overwhelming. There are no easy answers or quick fixes. And even the blunt threats of diplomacy, such as withholding aid or imposing sanctions, can be ineffective.

Every year, an estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children are trafficked across international borders, according to the State Department. About 80 percent of them are women and girls. Up to half are minors.

Most of them are victims of sex trafficking, winding up as prostitutes in countries ranging from the Dominican Republic to the Netherlands to Japan. Others are forced to become beggars or child soldiers. Still others are forced to work in sweatshops 20 hours a day or are trapped in involuntary servitude as construction or domestic workers.

When it come to human trafficking, no country is clean, including the United States. Every year, about 17,500 people are smuggled across U.S. borders into slavery, Miller said.

"Are we doing enough?" Miller said. "No. No country is doing enough."

When I read storys like this, and think about human trafficking it feels almost overwhelming to fight against. But something we can do is be aware,as Christians, as the Church, be aware and not let this lurk in the shadows of society, standing for justice when the stand is required.