Domestic Servitude

Employees working in private homes are forced or coerced into serving and/or fraudulently convinced that they have no option to leave.

Forced Labor

Human beings are forced to work under the threat of violence and for no pay. These slaves are treated as property and exploited to create a product for commercial sale.

Child Labor

Any enslavement — whether forced labor, domestic servitude, bonded labor or sex trafficking — of a child.

Sex Trafficking

Women, men or children that are forced into the commercial sex industry and held against their will by force, fraud or coercion.

Bonded Labor

Individuals that are compelled to work in order to repay a debt and unable to leave until the debt is repaid. It is the most common form of enslavement in the world.

Forced Marriage

Women and children who are forced to marry another without their consent or against their will.

Organ removal

While not as prevalent as sex and labor trafficking, is quite real and widespread. Those targeted are sometimes killed or left for dead. More frequently poor and desperate people are lured by false promises. The World Health Organization estimates that as many as 7,000 kidneys are illegally obtained by traffickers every year as demand outstrips the supply of organs legally available for transplant. A black market thrives as well in the trade of bones, blood and other body tissues. This activity is listed in the United Nations’ Trafficking in Persons Protocol.

Modern Slavery involves the use of force, fraud, or coercion. It is estimated that human trafficking generates many billions of euros of profit per year, second only to drug trafficking as the most profitable form of transnational crime. Human trafficking is a hidden crime as victims rarely come forward to seek help because of language barriers, fear of the traffickers, and fear of law enforcement. Traffickers use force, fraud, or coercion to lure their victims and force them into labor or commercial sexual exploitation. They look for people who are susceptible for a variety of reasons, including psychological or emotional vulnerability, economic hardship, lack of a social safety net, natural disasters, or political instability. The trauma caused by the traffickers can be so great that many may not identify themselves as victims or ask for help, even in highly public settings.

In his fourth homily on Ecclesiastes, the fourth century Church Father, saint Gregory of Nyssa takes up the issue of slavery. He notes the absurdity of man enslaving man, declaring that man has been dividing into two species, causing “it to be enslaved to itself. […] God would not reduce the human race to slavery, since he himself, when we had been enslaved to sin, spontaneously recalled us to freedom. But if God does not enslave what is free, who is he that sets his own power above God’s?”

Similarly, in the 2014 Declaration against Modern Slavery signed by world Religious Leaders, such as Pope Francis, Ecumenical Patriarch Bartholomew, that I represented, Your Grace, and many others, we can read: “In the eyes of God, each human being is a free person, whether girl, boy, woman or man, and is destined to exist for the good of all in equality and fraternity. Modern slavery, in terms of human trafficking, forced labor and prostitution, organ trafficking, and any relationship that fails to respect the fundamental conviction that all people are equal and have the same freedom and dignity, is a crime against humanity.”

In this Declaration, one of the Ecumenical Patriarch's observations was how ironic and tragic is that in the twenty-first century, we are still responding to the moral challenge of slavery! Indeed, the slavery that we witness and confront is more inhumane and more malevolent than similar phenomena in the early Christian centuries or even in more recent centuries. For today we are addressing and responding to an invisible, clandestine and underground reality – one that shamelessly exploits and mercilessly undermines both men and women of all ages, race and religion through such criminal and abusive measures as human trafficking, forced labor, prostitution and organ trafficking.

The factors driving forced migration will persist. Thus, more people will be at risk, and much more attention and work should be focused on protecting refugees and asylum-seekers.

Slavery is more than a humanitarian challenge; it is a crisis of our humanity. We are obligated through international and national law, by fundamental theological tenets and essential principles of human rights to ensure we all can live free. Here is a powerful conjunction of conviction and principles between international organisations and religious communities. They share values that predestine them to collaborate to protect the vulnerable, uphold human dignity and fulfill our commitment to humankind.

Today international law and religious freedom are questioned by political elites. In response, we must form and strengthen alliances among those institutions that are motivated, indeed were created to uphold these principles. In times of political pressure and increasing forced migration, international organisations, intergovernmental and religious organisations must unify their response to develop sustainable solutions.

In the current migration crisis, religious groups offer acute care and relief, such as in Turkey, Greece and Italy. Religious actors and faith-based organizations also help migrants’ inclusion in the receiving society by offering language and life skills training. These organizations build supportive networks and bridges between their religious community and the migrants.

We need better cooperation between religions and international organizations such as training the people who will care for and welcome the migrants. The interreligious dimension of this training – including mediation – should become mandatory.

KAICIID, for instance, promotes interfaith dialogue as an easily acquired skill that effectively contains and reduces biases and prejudices to promote peace through social inclusion. This dialogue contributes to a better understanding of the other, by “re-humanizing” the other and thus promoting human dignity and security.

The work of international organisations, faith-based humanitarian organizations and religious communities can be coordinated through interreligious platforms. These platforms yield inclusive action plans and sustainable policy recommendations that are not otherwise developed. Building interreligious platforms is an area of practical dialogue work in which KAICIID is specialized. 

In today’s political climate, these platforms also serve to help the local societies that receive flows of migrants not to reject them. Instead through dialogue these societies can resist the sirens of racism and xenophobia hidden behind the curtain of nationalism.

Thank you!