Friday, June 03, 2011

UK: Catholic Church and Scotland Yard strike a blow against sex trafficking

In the UK a new partnership is being forged between the Catholic Bishops and police to fight the scourge of human trafficking which is the fastest growing form of slavery today with millions of victims around the world. 

Detective Inspector Keith Hyland is a committed Catholic who heads the Anti-Trafficking and Prostitution Unit at the New Scotland Yard police headquarters. 

He told Susy Hodges how many of these victims lose their freedom and basic human rights after being tricked by the traffickers:

"Very often they are duped into thinking that they are coming to London ... for a great job ... and the streets are paved with gold..." 

He says the victims of these traffickers are treated with appalling brutality: " I know of people who've been held at gunpoint, where people have been routinely beaten, where victims have been raped on a daily basis..."

Hyland has been in touch with the Catholic Bishops Conference of England Wales to cooperate in the fight against human trafficking: "I think this new partnership with the Bishops' Conference is very exciting and ....what we aim to achieve will be very significant." 

He said the bishops "are preparing a strategy that will deal with the response and support that can be given to trafficked victims and also the education that can be given to congregations."
 
Hyland said one of the trafficking cases they dealt with involved a young Lithuanian women: "She was forced to work for brothels, she had to have sex with up to 20 men a day, she was violently assaulted if she did not do as she was told and was actually treated worse than an animal."