HUMAN RIGHTS " "
Each year millions of people in the world end up in the hands of criminal racketeers, who kidnap them and sell them into various forms of slavery. In Europe the trafficking of human beings “has assumed alarming proportions” and especially involves women and children, but also men who are subjected to exploitation in work. The majority of these people come from the countries of Eastern Europe. Between 2000 and 2004, 6,225 victims of the traffic were officially helped, but the real figures are far higher. To seek responses to this dramatic phenomenon, the International Emmaus Movement and Emmaus Europa are planning to bring together churchmen, aid workers, politicians and, for the first time, the victims themselves, who will have the possibility of speaking out. “Together against contemporary slavery”: that’s the title of the European Days of combating the traffic of human beings, due to be held in Florence from 19 to 21 October, in collaboration with the Istituto degli Innocenti. The aims of the meeting are: “Multiplying efforts to eradicate this crime; formulating together proposals for its prevention, for caring for the victims and re-inserting them in society; establishing and reinforcing real dialogue between the people who work in the field and politicians to obtain new legal safeguards to protect the victims; and launching together campaigns and actions to combat” the traffic. Representatives of associations from 20 European countries, as well as delegates from Asia, Africa and Latin America, will attend the meeting. The European Days will be inaugurated with a press conference with the participation of Abbé Pierre, founder of the Emmaus Movement, Father Oreste Benzi, founder of the Pope John XXIII Association, and victims of the traffic.
