A powerful appeal to the heads of State and Government of Europe and Africa to work against "the evils of the new forms of slavery of our age", since "slavery still exists and in more underhand ways, for instance in the way migrants and migrant workers, children’s labour, the trade of women and children are treated, and so on": this is contained in the message disclosed today to SIR that the bishops of Europe and Africa have sent to the current presidents of the African Union and the European Union, who will meet at the summit in Lisbon (8-9 December). The message, signed at Elmina (taking its name from the castle near Cape Coast, the Ghana, used for the slave trade), by cardinal Adrien Théodore Sarr, archbishop of Dakar and deputy president of Secam (Symposium of the Bishops Conferences of Europe and Africa), and by cardinal Josip Bozanic, archbishop of Zagreb and deputy president of Ccee (Council of the European Bishops Conferences), is the fruit of a workshop on "Slavery and new forms of slavery" that took place there from 13th to 18th November 2007, attended by over thirty African and European bishops and delegates of humanitarian agencies. At the end, a final release had been published which had to be followed by the message that has been relayed today. (continued)
