One of the wonderful things about medicine is the insight it gives us into humanity on a daily basis. After sufficient time, a physician learns to see, simply in passing, signs of illness or injury in other people. Problems past or present jump out to our eyes. And in fact, as Christians we should develop similar skills out of love. Given that the church is called to be salt and light to the world, it makes sense for us to also serve as scouts, as ‘life-guards.’ As such, we should be constantly on the lookout for the oppressed, the suffering, those subject to cruelty and tyranny, violence and harm.
Unfortunately, in modern times one of the things we should be watching for is evidence of human trafficking. Tragically, all around the world human beings are bought and sold in enormous numbers as victims of such horrors. They are sold as sex slaves (forced into prostitution or other forms of sexual exploitation), as wage slaves (never making enough money to deliver themselves from unfair labor practices and contracts) and into frank slavery in everything from farms and factories to restaurants.
While victims of trafficking may not attend a worship service, there are other places where Christians interact with the public and where we might be able to identify, and report, those in distress. For instance, they might come to our food-banks or other church-related services like children’s festivals or community-wide parties. We might see them putting children onto a VBS bus, or simply observe them in the secular businesses where we work each week.
We can help identify these persons, and alert authorities, by knowing warning signs of human trafficking. The FBI offers a number of identifying characteristics (see also the link below): those who are victims may have no ID or money or documents. We may observe that they are closely watched and are highly controlled by others. It may be evident that they live in terrible living conditions and have poor clothing and nutrition. Furthermore, those who are victims of trafficking may report that they move frequently; or more likely be very evasive about any interaction. We should also be attentive to places where humans are behind locks and fences, or where persons have very long work hours and very little income. These same individuals may suffer wounds from abuse, work related injuries, or other illnesses for which they are not allowed to seek adequate care.
In fact, human trafficking is a problem of exploding proportions, and a business that is worth an estimated $150 billion per year worldwide which currently enslaves some 20 million humans of all ages. While in America, it typically involves foreign citizens trafficked into the US, the fact remains that about 33% of victims are US citizens. The great tragedy of human trafficking is that it preys almost exclusively on the most vulnerable of all citizens: the poor, the alien, the uneducated or undereducated, the weak, the young, substance abusers and those with mental illness. As Christians, this aspect should be particularly galling to us all.
And it should prompt us to learn how to diagnose this disease of humanity so that it can be identified, dealt with and ended.
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