Churches can help fight human trafficking: they are everywhere

As UEFA Euro 2024 gets underway in Germany, some are concerned about the correlation between sporting events and sexual exploitation. With millions of fans flocking to the football tournament, there is an increased risk of human trafficking to fuel the dark dealings taking place outside the stadiums.

Christian Daily International recently spoke with two women who have been working on the front lines of the fight against human trafficking for years. Even though reports indicate that modern slavery is on the rise in Europe, they say churches can play a unique role in local neighborhoods if they pay attention and understand how they can help those who have been victims of this trade.

Frontline help in Belgium

April Foster launched the Breaking Chains Network (BCN) with her husband Jerry in 2007. The ministry focuses on Antwerp's red light district and Foster oversees the work after spending many years in the Belgian city.

Foster's heart for victims of human trafficking began in 2004. She became concerned for the welfare of Thai children missing from hospitals after the infamous Indian Ocean tsunami. To his horror, Foster realized that young people were being kidnapped from medical facilities and then exploited by sexual predators.

“It made my heart sink that someone could be so cruel in preying on children's vulnerabilities,” Foster recalls darkly. She soon realized that her heart felt a burden to help victims of human trafficking. Foster's Christian employer at the time recognized her calling and released her to help those in need.

BCN now uses a team of volunteers in Antwerp and has helped thousands of women from over 40 countries, who find themselves in difficult situations in the city.

The ministry opened the Oasis Center in 2010, a community center to provide practical and spiritual support to women. She also briefly managed a residence for three years.

Foster explained that the department meets women in the district “where they are.”

“We help in any way we can,” said Foster, who is also an ordained Assemblies of God minister. “Obviously some of them don’t want to be there, so we help the women leave the neighborhood, sometimes with just the clothes they are wearing.”

BCN helps organize legal procedures to free victims, such as passports and necessary documents for departure, and manage debt bondage to pimps. They also help them reconnect with their families, if necessary.

Foster acknowledged an “element of danger” to the job due to dealing with criminals controlling female and child victims.

“In our district there are criminal gangs that attract people and there have been a few encounters over the years, which is why we keep a low profile. We must be careful.

Several local churches support the ministry, which also supports women by providing education, finding them alternative work and providing counseling.

“The ministerial team is made up of women and not men because men would attract unwanted attention to us in the district. »

Call to churches to act

Foster wants more churches in Europe to get involved in helping victims of human trafficking.

“The wider Church in Europe needs to be more aware of the scale of the problem of human trafficking,” Foster said. “More training and awareness is needed. Churches should help victims when they return home.

“God uses people to heal people, and it’s important that the local church provides that place of healing for women who have been exploited.”

“For some traumatized women, it is often problematic to find a church that welcomes them and we would like to change that. Our heart is to equip others.

Work together

The Breaking Chains Network is a member of the European Freedom Network (EFN), which brings together 270 Christian organizations and individuals from 44 countries working together to end human trafficking and commercial exploitation.

Leanne Rhodes has worked for 12 years in the fight against human trafficking in Europe. Rhodes joined the EFN core team in 2015 and served as EFN Executive Director from 2019 to 2023 and is now a member of the Board of Directors.

She founded an anti-trafficking charity, “Abolishion”, in 2012, to “break down the systems that keep people in sexual slavery”, operating in Romania, Portugal and Australia. An ordained minister in the Australian Christian Churches, she also served as global director of the World Freedom Network of the World Evangelical Alliance from 2021 to 2023.

“I still remember the day I first met survivors of human trafficking,” Rhodes said. “There were around 12 girls aged between 14 and 22 who had been forced into forced prostitution. Most of them were very friendly, which I didn't expect. It was as if they had regressed in time to a safe age where everything was fine.

“But there was this girl who just sat staring at a wall, rocking back and forth. It was completely closed. I stayed there for a few days and every day she got closer to me. On the third day, she reached out to me. She held it for a whole hour looking at me with tears in her eyes.

“From that day on, I knew I could make a difference in the lives of survivors, even if I just held someone's hand. »

According to the Walk Free Global Slavery Index, some 50 million people are in slavery worldwide. Rhodes said human trafficking exists in all European countries.

The war in Ukraine showed what churches can do

“Unfortunately, the pandemic and now the war in Ukraine has seen an increased vulnerability of people, which has led to an increase in human trafficking,” Rhodes told Christian Daily International.

Rhodes said churches were “extraordinary” in their response to human trafficking when the war in Ukraine began.

“Churches were running to the borders and the EFN worked closely with the European Evangelical Alliance to spread messages across social media on how to care for traumatized people and protect them from human trafficking ” Rhodes said. “Churches took this on board and did so, saving countless lives at the borders. »

Many churches in Europe are responding to human trafficking by supporting NGOs and raising awareness of the problem among the general public.

“Usually when a church wants to do more, they create a ministry or an NGO, which hopefully wants to be part of the EFN,” Rhodes said. “I see the EFN as part of the churches' response to human trafficking rather than separate from it. »

We can all do something

“Of course, churches are everywhere, and that has power,” she added. “If we all look out for the vulnerable in our communities and watch for signs of trafficking, we can all do something. »

Rhodes suggested several ways churches can more effectively combat the problem of human trafficking and help victims.

“We always ask churches to be trauma-informed in their practices, making their community a safe place for survivors to heal. After Ukraine, we know a lot more about how to be trauma informed, but EFN has many tools to help you figure out how to get there.

“Second, partner with anti-trafficking organizations in your country. They will know better what is needed at the local/national level and can help your church find a way to contribute that works for what is “hidden in plain sight” in their country as well as what works with their strengths and their resources.

“Third, get to know the vulnerable people in your community. This is likely where the trafficking victims will be.

Rhodes invited all churches interested in helping survivors of human trafficking to join EFN and utilize available resources.

European lawmakers plan new regulations

The call for churches to act comes as the European Parliament backs plans to combat human trafficking with new regulations criminalizing “forced marriage, illegal adoption and exploitation of surrogacy at the level of the EU”.

The policy body also agreed to impose “business due diligence” to ensure accountability and end exploitation in supply chains.

Europe and Central Asia “have the second highest prevalence of modern slavery among the world’s five regions,” according to findings from the Walk Free Global Slavery Index. This is due to “the prevalence of forced labor and forced marriages, including poverty, discrimination, migration and lack of economic opportunities.”

According to the European Commission providing data in an April 2023 policy statement, around 37% of trafficking victims are EU citizens and are often trafficked within their own countries. At the same time, the majority of victims come from countries outside the EU, a figure that has been increasing in recent years.

“The majority of victims in the EU are women and girls who are mainly trafficked for sexual exploitation,” the political declaration said. “The proportion of male victims has more than doubled in recent years. Around 15 percent of trafficking victims in the EU are children.”

Eurostat figures show 10,093 victims of human trafficking registered in the EU in 2022, 63% of them women, and with 2,097 convicted traffickers, 78% of these criminals were men.