(from our correspondent) But hard labour "also exists in the industrialised countries commented mgr. Marchetto , with 360,000 people involved as well as 260,000 working women in the Middle East and Northern Africa, and 210,000 in transition countries". The victims of economic exploitation are "56% women and girls". Mgr. Marchetto spoke of the actions taken by the Church in the sphere of migration and trade, the work carried out to fight this phenomenon by nuns (also through a new international network) and by Caritas in many countries. He concluded by recalling that "the deep roots of this heinous phenomenon of the new forms of slavery lie in the huge economic gap between rich and poor countries, and between the rich and the poor within each country".
