Prayer guide for June 13 & 20, 2008
Scripture:
“ … As is the mother, so is her daughter.”
–Ezekiel 16:44 (KJV)
Reflection:
“We are pleased that in the seven years since the creation of the Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, the United States and our friends and allies have made important strides in confronting the reality that human beings continue to be bought and sold in the twenty-first century. It has been gratifying to witness the determined governments, human rights and women’s groups, faith-based organizations, and many brave individuals who are dedicated to advancing human dignity worldwide. Trafficking and exploitation plague all nations, and no country, even ours, is immune.”
–US Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice, June 4, 2008
Update and Prayer:
· The US State Department recently released its 2008 Trafficking in Persons Report, documenting sexual exploitation and forced labour in 170 countries.
· The report is available here for download.
· Thanks to the article “Of Human Bondage” published in the Wall Street Journal, here are some of the key points in the TIP report:
· Oil-rich Russia is more likely to import prostitutes and forced laborers, often from Central Asia, than to export them.
· India has taken steps to protect prostitutes and child laborers, but has done little to help bonded workers, usually of lower castes.
· China is cited for, among other things, a recent scandal involving the relocation of children from the interior to work in electronics factories in coastal Guangdong province.
· China is also criticized for its treatment of tens of thousands of North Korean refugees, who are sold as brides or into brothels or forced to work under brutal conditions in logging camps.
· The TIP report also lists products made with forced labor. They include shrimp from Thailand and Bangladesh; clothing from Bangladesh, India, Jordan and Malaysia; cotton harvested in Uzbekistan; cocoa from Ghana and Cote d’Ivoire; and pig iron from Brazil. Not all products in these industries are made with slave labor, and it’s too bad the report does not identify companies that buy or sell tainted products.”
· Here’s the full article.
Canada:
· Canada has a “shocking” record in human trafficking, says University of B.C. law professor Benjamin Perrin.
· Perrin cited an RCMP estimate that 600 people are trafficked into Canada each year, and noted that as a transit country, another 1,500 to 2,200 people are trafficked from Canada into the U.S. each year.
· “Those figures are extremely conservative and yet in the last calendar year, there have been no successful prosecutions” of human traffickers in Canada, said Perrin, a leading investigator in human trafficking and child-sex tourism.
· You can see the article here.
