Against human trafficking. For human rights.

Human trafficking is a worldwide problem. In Africa, two out of three victims are children. In Asia, more than 11 million people have to work under slavelike conditions. But also in Europe there is human trafficking.

The International Labour Organisation (ILO) estimates that 4.5 millione pople worrldwide are exploited sexually, 55 per cent of them women. More than 5 million children have to do slave work. Human trafficking is a profitable, global and criminal business taking profits of several hundreds of billions of dollars every year.

"The root causes of human trafficking are the lack of perspectives and poverty", Dr Jochen Motte say, UEM Executive Secretary and initiator of the campaign. "Legal forms of migration often pass into illegal forms. It is shocking how big the human trafficking business has become. not only in Africa and Asia, but also in Europe and Germany."

Dr Motte stressed, that UEM member churches have been engaging for the rights of women and children for years. He mentioned a project for migrant workers in Hong Kong as an example.

Regine Reinalda from the "Mitternachtsmission", a diaconic shelter for prostitutes and victims of human trafficking told about the situation in the city of Dortmund. "This year we have been counselling 200 women from all over the world which were forced into prostitution. We give a safe shelter where they cannot be found and help them bring their cases to court."

You can find the campaign material here (until now only in German language).