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Thousands of women, smuggled illegally into the country, trafficked by unscrupulous profiteers, serving the sexual desires of those willing to pay for their services – what of them? These new generations of slaves are to be found all over Europe, and elsewhere in the world.  According to United Nations figures, between 200-300,000 women are trafficked across Europe every year:  globally, the figure is around four million, four per cent of the world’s migrants.  Two million children are reckoned to become victims of paedophiles and their networks, and the demand for child pornography and child prostitution is growing.  Well over £7 billion is generated each year from sex trade trafficking.

These sex slaves are usually young women who have been lured abroad with promises of decent jobs, good wages and better living conditions.  They want to escape from the poverty that surrounds them in the East – Albania, Romania, Moldova, and many other countries.  They live in a period of economic transition when their needs – for good public health care and education, for better housing and social services – are largely unmet.  Such women are acutely vulnerable to unscrupulous traffickers; once in the West, they become victims of those who transported them across Europe.  Their passports and papers are taken away; they are guarded day and night, and their windows are sealed; the money paid by their clients goes into the pockets of the traffickers, so the women are permanently in debt to them for their sale price, for their travel, food, clothing and accommodation.  Worst of all, they live in permanent fear – of being prosecuted for being an illegal immigrant, of threats to their families if they try to escape, of being exposed to the shame of being prostitutes. Those who do manage to escape are often treated as criminals by the authorities.

Exaggeration?  Listen to the voice of one young woman, trapped into prostitution:  “I was raped and abused by hundreds of men in every imaginable way.  Every time I close my eyes, I see something from the past.  I am afraid to sleep on the bed because it makes me think of all these things.  I don’t feel safe.  I feel frightened hearing footsteps, or in the dark.”

What can we do about this appalling abuse of the human rights of these young women? There are many organisations involved in the struggle to end this brutal trade, in many countries of Europe, including several in Eastern Europe – Christian organisations and groups such as Amnesty International and Anti-Slavery International.    At an official level, the Council of Europe has proposed a Convention, proposing official recognition of the need for governments to provide protection and support to all trafficked people, to prevent trafficking and to prosecute those who practise it.  It is affirmed and supported by a joint statement, signed by more than 170 non-governmental organisations from 30 countries.  So far, although the Convention was opened for signature on 16 May 2005, the United Kingdom Government has not yet ratified it.  Once the 10 member states have ratified the Convention, it will enter into force, and an independent body of experts will monitor its implementation.  .

Why are governments taking their time?  Will it be left to Christian organisations, NGOs and concerned individuals to expose this modern-day evil for what it is – slavery?  Or, at the beginning of a new millennium, will our own nation stand against it, just as it did 200 years ago?  We need to lobby our elected representatives to make a stand for justice, for the sake of the hidden slaves in our midst. Only then will our descendents look back and mark 200 years of freedom from twenty-first century slavery.