Loading..."The alien who resides with you shall be to you as the citizen among you; you shall love the alien as yourself, for you were aliens in the land of Egypt." - Leviticus 19:33-34
Over the past 15 years, "trafficking in persons" or "human trafficking" have been used as umbrella terms for activities involved when one person obtains or holds another person in compelled service. The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) describes this compelled service using a number of different terms: involuntary servitude, slavery, debt bondage, and forced labor.
Under the UN's Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, (the Palermo Protocol) and the TVPA, people may be trafficking victims regardless of whether they were born into a state of servitude or were transported to the exploitative situation, or whether they once consented to work for a trafficker. At the heart of this phenomenon are the myriad forms of enslavement - not the activities involved in international transportation.
Source: State Department Definitions of Major Forms of Human Trafficking
Resolutions of the General Convention of the Episcopal Church USA
- 2000-A057 Recognize Problem & Support Efforts to Stop Trafficking of Women, Girls, and Boys
- 2003-A025 Recommend Funding for Resource Materials on Trafficking in Women and Children
- 2003-D034 Condom Sex Trafficking
Resources
To learn more about human trafficking and what we can do to stop it, visit:
- Presbyterian Mission Agency - Human Trafficking Awareness
- Office of Refugee Resettlement - Anti-Trafficking in Persons Program
- Resources from the Episcopal Church USA
- US Department of State - Identify and Assist a Trafficking Victim
- US Department of State - Releases, Media and Public Affairs
"So then you are no longer strangers and aliens, but you are citizens with the saints and also members of the household of God, built upon the foundation of the apostles and prophets, with Jesus Christ himself as the cornerstone." - Ephesians 2: 19
