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United Kingdom
The abolition of slavery in the UK in 1807 was a step on the journey to freedom and respect for all, but that journey is still unfinished business. Human trafficking continues across Europe and the globe, and a new enslavement in trafficked women and girls for sexual exploitation in massage parlours, brothels and ‘secured’ houses is present in the cities and market towns of the UK today.
The trafficking business is now worth an estimated £12 billion globally. That is a staggering sum, just below the annual trade in armaments. The United States State Department estimates that over 800,000 people are trafficked over international borders each year. Of these, an estimated 80% will be sexually exploited in one way or another, and the majority will be women and female children. It is thought that over 4,000 women are trafficked for prostituted sex into the UK each year. Meanwhile over 80,000 women are caught in prostitution in the UK, many of whom are foreign nationals. Each year thousands of businessmen and holiday makers go abroad to purchase sex.
We need to address issues of prevention, tackle demand, encourage local initiatives to help with routes out and safety for victims of exploitation, ensure justice is resourced and survivors protected. Larger budgets for enforcement, more legislation, culture change and more resources for survivors are essential if this trade is to be halted. The bicentenary of the Act to abolish the slave trade deserves nothing less from us.
Not for Sale Sunday – 20th May 2007 – was a unique opportunity to reflect, respond and engage with the multiple issues of sexual exploitation today. Not for Sale Sunday is a special initiative of Churches Alert to Sex Trafficking across Europe (CHASTE). CHASTE is the ecumenical charity in the UK engaging the issues of sex trafficking in the churches and liasing with government, all church denominations and other NGOs in the UK and across Europe. A special anthology is now in the process of being published, which will provide the churches across denominations with resources to start thinking through the responses to sexual abuse in “pay as you go” sex, as well as the most outrageous excesses of human rights abuses in sex trafficking. This anthology, bringing together fresh contributions in hymns, prayers, liturgies, Bible studies and essays, will be an important resource for any individual or congregation wanting to effect change.
The new United Kingdom Human Trafficking Centre based in Sheffield, equips the police with co-ordinated responses to trafficking in all its forms, labour, domestic servitude, sexual exploitation, fostering for social security fraud and trade in human organs. Not for Sale Sunday will equip the churches to confront the multiple degradation of sexual exploitation and learn what is required to overcome it.
For further information or to develop a Not for Sale Sunday service later in the year for your church, log onto www.notforsalesunday.org or contact Richard@chaste.org.uk.
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