Declaration of the LXXVI Plenary Assembly of the Spanish Episcopal Conference (CEE)

The Human and moral Drama of Trafficking in Women
Madrid, 27 April 2001

1. An alarming reality.

Trafficking in human beings, and particularly trafficking in women for sexual exploitation has unfortunately reached alarming proportions lately both in Europe and in our country. The proliferation in our society of this new form of slavery represents for us,  Bishops, a cause for serious worry.
Through this declaration, we aim to help Christians, our Christian community and society in general to become aware of the human and moral drama that trafficking in women represents for the latter. Deprived of any guarantee or right, they are delivered and forced into marriage, with advantage being taken of their poverty and dependency ; they are forced into the networks that control the prostitution business. 
Other episcopal conferences [1] have referred to this dreadful situation which is expanding. This business is moving up to 7000 million dollars per year worldwide [2].  This growing business is often managed by the same networks which deal with drugs and money laundering, and has amazingly increased the traffick in human beings on all continents. 
As for Spain, suffice to mention that in 2000, 14,118 persons dedicated to prostitution were checked, 37 networks were dismantled and 204 authors of criminal offenses related to human trafficking and prostitution of children were arrested [3].

2. Origins of this situation.

Trafficking in women is a phenomenon whose causes are closely related to migration.
The first cause of trafficking in women, if one looks at the country of origin, is poverty: it prevents people from addressing their vital needs and forces them to flee to the welfare world.
Together with poverty, other issues must be taken into account, like violence and conflicts which cause exodus and expulsion to safer places. All this affects women in a special way, due to their inequal and precarious status, and the lack of any future perspective in many third world countries.
The reception services of social organisations and Christian communities [4],  witness that a relevant number of women entangled in prostitution networks are foreigners [5] who are forced to earn their living in that way in order to emigrate, be it legally or not. 
When looking at the host countries, like Spain, we can identify as primary cause the consumer society in which we are living, led by market regulations and the banalization of sexuality. Such circumstances benefit people without any scruples who organize the shameful activity of women trafficking for the purpose of prostitution.  [6].
Among the causes, we cannot hide the “customer” as primary factor.  One always refers to victims and dealers, forgetting that the “customer” is a major actor in maintaining this disgraceful business.
One can also point to the relative tolerance, both social and legal, towards trafficking as a factor contributing to traffic in women. We should not allow the strengthening of immigration regulations to foster the clandestine growth of these mafias and dealers. 
The media and modern technology like the Internet, while performing the noble task of informing and denouncing these shameful situations for human beings, also foster them through publicity, ads for sexual and pornographic offers. They become, according to financial turnout, accessories to this trade in human beings. It would be a good sign of moral recovery to closely monitor the messages that are circulated through these media.

3. Victims of trafficking

As we emphasized earlier, many people benefit from trafficking in women and nevertheless public opinion does not react adequately when faced with this human misery.
The daily life of these women is often worse than pasttime slavery. Besides being tricked into recruitment,  they are often badly treated and undergo inhuman living conditions, together with the loss of freedom. They are frequently emprisoned in the places where they ply their trade, heaped together and deprived of documents which makes them inexistent for society.
Once these women decide to return to a decent and free life, they must face lots of difficulties because of the pressure of mafia networks and because they have not succeeded in making their dream of well being come true nor put an end to their misery. They often have to face threats and retaliation against themselves or their families: psychological problems arise from the emotional traumas they suffer and the experience they have endured. Besides familiar rejection caused by their past prostitution, they often have to face legal problems since many of them have signed contracts of doubtful legal value with forged identities and documents.
4. Serious breach of human rights
Trafficking in  women, fostered by an economic and materialistic-minded culture, which has lost the sacred and decent character of the human being, created to God’s image (Gen 1,27), is one of the most shameful ways to reduce the human being to a mere commodity. 
One has to acknowledge that many women who prostitute themselves through the traffic networks have disregarded their most basic human rights.  Their entering this traffic only enhances the marginalization in which they were living. The woman, litterally “sold” through these networks, lives in utter poverty. 
We already pointed out that the final aim of women trafficking is mainly the sex market: this is subject to demand, meaning the “customers”. The level of social tolerance towards this activity, added to the moral degradation of those who make use of sexual services against payment, reveals a deep injustice which leads to the loss of ethical values in our society.
In the same way, we wish to expose the injustice, relativism and moral subjectivism that exist in our society and underline that  “due to its personal dignity, the human being is a value in itself and therefore must be considered and decently treated. On the contrary, it should never be treated or considered as a usable object, a tool or a thing.””[7]. In this practice we find the sheer root of the immorality of prostitution as radical negation of human love.  The core of the latter is personal and affective disinterested surrender, while the core of prostitution is, on the contrary, profit and use of people as goods. 
We insist on the urgent need for educating in a culture firmly based on principles like the untouchable dignity of all human beings and the respect of his/her rights, and also to take the necessary measures so that such shameful behaviours be subject to ethical and social reproval.
To see these persons or any human being as God sees them, requires basic feelings like love, respect, compassion for such pain and indignation against this avoidable injustice. 
It is important to eradicate this unfair and devastating mentality of which the woman is the first victim and according to which the human being is considered as a thing, an object subjected to commercial exploitation, a tool for selfish interest or mere pleasure.
5. Pending tasks for society and the congregation of Christian communities
Faced with the increasing problem of trafficking in women, it is urgent that society adequately address this situation and its victims.  On the one hand, it is necessary to revive education in moral values, such as respect for others as human beings, for their dignity; and on the other hand, to reject any discrimination and inhuman exploitation [8].
Legal tools exist in the international context to which most States adhere and which give the latter the responsibility of protecting the victims of trafficking.  Nevertheless, few are the countries that have committed themselves to resolutely and efficiently combat this evil.  Therefore it is urgent to develop the implementation of these legal tools within the context of an effective international cooperation and to incorporate these into the internal regulations of the States. 
In Spain, our Constitution acknowledges the rights and freedom of foreigners.  These rights should be acknowledged and legally implemented with total generosity.
We should also improve the treatment of victims, giving them efficient protection with guarantees for those who might decide to expose their exploiters.  Therefore, there is an urgent need for specific programmes including integration plans, asylum and sanctuary, legalization of their situation, free access to legal counselling and confidential medical assistance.  A purely theoretical protection is not enough for women whose lives and families are threatened. 
At the same time, the police should efficiently fight traffickers in human beings, by means of a fluent international cooperation, more effective internal controls and raising awareness about this issue in our society.  
The needed change of mentality will not be possible without the contribution of the media, in view of the importance they have in our kind of society. We will ask them to inform us as to violations of human rights without any sensationalism, thus circulating a message which will both help understand the issue and raise social awareness.
You,the women who suffer the dreadful degradation this exploitation entails, we encourage you to build courage from weakness. We are aware of your serious and painful situation which causes you and us such sadness. We know that it is very difficult for you to rebuild your life, but this is not impossible. Do count for that on institutions, associations and non-profit organisations that are willing to help and share your sufferings.
We ask our church communities and each of their members to be an open house for the victims [9] and that they foster proposals to welcome them; that they take adequate measures for care, work integration and social rehabilitation and collaborate in the prophetical denunciation of the structures of sin that sustain this situation. 
Finally, we wish to acknowledge the efforts, the silent, brave and generous help of the Christian communities, religious congregations and social organizations which are welcoming women who have decided to face this situation.  We want to encourage them all, professionals and  volunteers, to remain steadfast in their work. The Church has the mission to defend and foster the dignity of every human being who " has been elevated to unpaired dignity in Christ. The Son of God, through his incarnation, has united, in a certain way, with every man " [10]. Following the example of Christ, the Church should serve the poor, defend the cause of the weakest and proclaim that we were all born to live as sons of God (Cf. Lc 4,18).

[1] An example of that is the letter addressed both by the Chair of Consejo de Conferencias Episcopales de Europa, Cardenal Misloslav Vlk, and the Chair the Conference of European Churches , Metropolita Jéremie, about  Violence against women, June 1999. The Social Commission of the Bishops of France also issued a Declaration in the paper “L´esclavage de la prostitution” (4-XII-2.000).
[2] The figures come from the Organización Internacional de Migraciones (OIM).
[3] Source: Dirección General de la Guardia Civil. Figures collected in only 900 clubs.
[4] Data provided by care services to these women: Madrid, Barcelona, Bilbao, Orense, Alicante, Santiago de Compostela and Valladolid.
[5] Data collected from welcome and protection centres, supported by institutions of the Catholic Church show that the major part of these women come from South American countries (Colombia, Brazil, República Dominicana, Ecuador..) and Eastern Europe (Russia, Lituania, Croatia.), all of which suffer from major social, economic and political problems as well as poverty . This conclusion matches the data coming from the Dirección General de la Guardia Civil (2000) which point to South America as the country of origin of 70% of the victims of trafficking in women.
[6] In this regard, the increasing number of prostitution places is worrying: beside the old “China town”, there are numerous bars, massage parlours, road clubs etc. where these women are often emprisoned and subjected to extorsion by networks and mafias. 
[7] John Paul II, Exhortación Apostólica Christifideles laici,37
[8] Ibidem
[9] Cf. John Paul II, Carta Apostólica Novo Millenio Ineunte, 50.
[10] Concilio Vaticano II. Constitución Gaudium et spes, 22

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