Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People

People on the Move

N° 111 (Suppl.), December 2009

A commitment for the reintegration of

women of the street

Rev. Sr. Eugenia BONETTI, MC

“Counter-Trafficking” Office

Italian Union of Major Superiors (USMI)

Rome, Italy

Introduction

Your Excellency Archbishop Marchetto, Secretary of the Pontifical Council for the Pastoral Care of Migrants and Itinerant People, Bishops, Priests, Religious and lay people, and distinguished participants, I am grateful for the invitation to attend this important First Latin American Conference to share with you the same concern and care for people living on the move, on the roads and on the streets, often in dehumanising condition -- such as women and children in need of liberation from a new form of slavery.

I wish to share with you my personal experience in response to the plight of trafficked women and children, imported and exported all over the world like commodities mainly for the "sex market." We need to acknowledge that “slavery” still exists in the year 2008, and that the majority of its victims are women and children who do not choose to become prostitutes, but are forced into that life by a variety of different circumstances.

I am a Consolata Missionary sister who, in 1993, after spending 24 years of my missionary life in Kenya, was asked to return to Italy to work as a missionary in my own country. I began working with immigrant women, first in Turin in a Caritas Drop-In Centre and, in 2000, as the National Anti-Trafficking Coordinator for the Italian Union of Major Superiors (USMI Conference of Women Religious). My contribution at this meeting is, therefore, based on a personal experience of several years of commitment in collaboration with many women religious, organizations and individuals in Italy and abroad, primarily dealing in assisting young victims to regain their lost freedom, dignity and self-esteem and to recover the value of their lives, cultures, traditions, faith and womanhood, which have been abused, and too often destroyed.

Who is My Neighbour?

"A doctor of law, anxious to justify himself, said to Jesus: 'And who is my neighbour?' In answer Jesus said, 'A man was once on his way from Jerusalem to Jericho and fell into the hands of bandits: they stripped him, beat him and then made off, leaving him half dead." (Luke 10:29-37).

In the verse above, Jesus does not give a theological and exhaustive answer to the doctor of law, but offers him a disconcerting and complex, yet equally clear and challenging, parable that overturns cultural elements, eliminates prejudices, condemns certain attitudes and stimulates interventions. The unique focus of Jesus is on the person at hand, every person in whatever situation. The “person”, in fact, is the neighbour in need, in need of being loved and being taken care of.

Can this parable − the answer of Jesus − serve as a practical response today for one who still asks, "Who is my neighbour?"

How many times have we attempted to ask Jesus to show us the "neighbour" who is to be loved and helped, particularly when this “neighbour” is revealed or presented in an ambiguous and non-credible way. We have not always been able to find convincing and satisfying answers, because it is not easy to acknowledge as "neighbour" those persons who have been stereotyped and excluded from our own circles because we find them scandalous or their presence makes us uncomfortable.

Yet, if Jesus were to share this parable today, He would probably begin like this, "A young woman was on her way from Nigeria to Italy, crossing the Sahara Desert, and fell into the hands of human traffickers. These traffickers deceived her, violated and robbed her of her dignity, legality and freedom, leaving her half dead…” How would Jesus continue His narration? How would He interpret and explain this parable?

If we analyse persons, attitudes and interventions, we find a clear analogy between what Jesus proposed to his interlocutors and the parable of the Good Samaritan and what happens today, in a new context, along all our streets. Faces, names and circumstances change, but the reality of violence against the weak and defenceless individual remains unchanged.  

The Situation of Woman in the World Today

A brief analysis of the situation of women in the world today will help us to understand some of the root causes of trafficking in persons.

The face of poverty, marginalisation, discrimination and exploitation in the world today is feminine. Women represent 80% of the people who live in conditions of absolute poverty and almost two-thirds of the 850 million illiterate adults in the world. More than half of those between 15 and 24 years of age infected by the HIV/AIDS virus, mainly in developing countries, are women.

• Yet, it is the woman who bears the weight of providing for large families in many countries.
• It is the woman who suffers most because of famine and water scarcity, of armed conflicts and tribal battles.
• It is the woman who suffers first for lack of medicines and from the infection of AIDS.
• It is the woman who most often cannot attend school and as a result is eliminated from paid labour and positions of responsibility.
• It is still the woman who most frequently suffers violence at home.
• It is again the woman who is too often coerced or forced to leave her land in order to seek security and well-being, for herself and her family.
• Above all, it is the woman who suffers many kinds of violence--mainly sexual--and is frequently forced to use her body – often the only property she has – as an object of pleasure and a source of gain for others.
• But the most humiliating poverty for a woman is that of being trafficked, of being sold and bought like a commodity.

1. A Global Phenomenon

The Slave Trade: Women and Minors for Sale

A few facts regarding the global phenomenon of trafficking in human beings for sexual exploitation will help us to better understand the pastoral ministry of liberation of thousands of victims through projects of rehabilitation and reintegration into society.

The trade in human beings, particularly of women and minors, has become a powerful global business, entangling countless countries of origin, transit and/or destination. According to the latest report by Save the Children, issued on August 23, 2008, the victims of trafficking in persons are estimated to be 2.7 million, and 80% of them are women and children. According to the United Nations, trafficking in persons generates an annual income of $32 billion, and falls only behind the trade of arms and drugs.

In Europe, according to the International Organization for Migration (IOM), 500,000 women and minors are in circulation each year. Italy, too, has its fair share of victims. It is estimated that there are between 50,000 and 70,000 women from East Africa, Latin America and Eastern Europe who work in nightclubs and mainly on the streets of our urban centres and rural areas. Of these, 30%-40% are minors − between the ages of 14 and 18. Since these women have no documents (having been seized by their traffickers), it is difficult to assess the situation and provide accurate statistics. What we do know is that the majority of them are slaves − authentic victims of human trafficking.

Prostitution is not a new phenomenon, yet what is new is that a global and complex trade exploits the extreme poverty and vulnerability of many women and minors who have emigrated. They have become the 21^st century slaves. Tricked, enslaved and thrown onto the street, the "prostitute" is the living example of an unjust discrimination against women imposed by our consumer society.

No country is immune to this phenomenon. It is sad to realise that this market is mainly supported and nourished by the constant demand of the consumers seeking out and willing to pay for sex.

Chains and Slavery

To be a slave is to be chained. That chain robs people of freedom, forcing them to live under the will of another. Modern-day slavery is made up of many links. These links have names: the victims with their poverty, the exploiters with their huge earnings, the consumers with their need to escape frustration and responsibility in instant pleasure, the society with its empty values and permissiveness, the government with its corrupt system and complicity, the Church and every Christian, with our silence and indifference.

There is a highly-organized network of unscrupulous traffickers, men and women, who lure these victims in their home countries, where poverty is extreme and far-reaching, families are large, and wre young people have no hope for a better life. Exploiting this socio-economic situation, today’s slave traders mislead these women and their families with promises of a well-paying and dignified job. These women are brought to wealthy countries through illegal means, aided by the complicity of corrupt employees and officers in embassies, airports, customs and immigration offices, travel agents, landlords of apartments, hotel owners and taxi drivers. With huge earnings and relatively low risk, many people benefit in the process of destroying these women's lives. On reaching their destination women are immediately deprived of their travel documents, thus, losing their name, identity and freedom. They gradually lose a sense of who they are.

The women can cross several countries before reaching their “promised land”. They can pass through Greece, Russia, Bulgaria, Holland, Germany, Spain and France, travelling for weeks or months over land, by air, and/or sea. In the case of Nigerians, today, they are forced to wander for months in the Sahara Desert to avoid applying for legal documents.

The mechanism of the trafficking of young women from different countries is in many aspects similar, especially in regards to the physical and psychological violence they are subjected to; however, the dynamics of their trafficking are quite different.

For the girls from Eastern European countries, the network often tricks them into bogus engagements and promises of marriage. They are controlled by men who work on their emotions. They are also kept in sight and are easily sold from one gang to another - mainly Russians, Romanians and/or Albanians. Recently this network of traffickers pushed their victims to a kind of consensus, giving them a percentage of their daily earnings, thus clearing them from being accused of coercing prostitution.

On the other hand, Nigerians are entrusted to “mamans”[1]. These are Nigerian women, who turn from being exploited to exploiting others. They teach the new “recruits” how to work on the streets, control them, parcel out the stretch of pavement where they are to work, collect the earnings, punish them in case of resistance, and above all subject them to "voodoo rituals"[2] (black magic), a true form of psychological torture. The Nigerian traffickers are usually men delivering girls “on commission” for the madams, or bring in girls they contacted directly with the underlying intent to sell them to the highest bidder.

For young women from Latina America, normally they are recruited and engaged as entertainers or dancers in night clubs, thus being at the mercy of anybody requesting any service, which they cannot refuse. 

The Risks of the Streets

The "prostitutes" must live in absolute secrecy and in strict obedience to their traffickers and mamans. In addition, they are liable to the dangers of the street: maltreatment, abuse, road accidents and even death. Annually, hundreds of girls are killed on our streets--by their clients, by maniacs or by their traffickers. Many other victims die in the course of their exhausting journeys. Still others become pregnant during their journey of being trafficked, often forced to give birth in the desert or street.

There is also the risk of contracting HIV and AIDS. Ten - 15% of women ‘working’ on the street on HIV+. They face unwanted pregnancies, often terminated with forced abortions. African women are also frequent victims of mental illness as a result of the voodoo rituals performed against them, and from which they greatly fear reprisals against their families.

On the street, the "prostitute" completely loses her psycho-physical identity, her human dignity and her freedom of choice. She comes to view herself as an object, a thing, a piece of merchandise. She is forced to live as an illegal alien, a social and cultural outcast, with only one option open to her – to demand payment for sexual encounters, her earnings for which she keeps none.

2. The Italian Situation and Legislation

The Context of the “New Slave Trade” in Italy

At the beginning of the 1980s, following ongoing economic difficulties in developing countries, thousands of women came to Europe in search of work and a better quality of life. Illegal, poor and vulnerable, many became the prey of international and trans-national criminal organisations linked to the sex industry. Italy was not exempt from this phenomenon; in fact, very quickly Italy became a country of “transit” and “destination” for thousands of young women bought and sold as mere commodities.

The phenomenon of immigrant women from developing countries “imported” to Italy for the sex industry began to be in force in the early ‘90s. Since then the number of women working mainly on the streets of our towns and villages--in dehumanising conditions--has been steadily on the increase. Italy’s geography and position lends itself to easy entry by slave traders trying to “sell women” to satisfy the demand of millions of consumers.

Very soon young women tried to run away from their traffickers and started asking for help and protection. Religious Congregations, together with Diocesan Caritas and voluntary groups, were among the first to read this new sign of the time and to offer women alternative solutions to a life on the streets. Almost immediately, Religious Congregations opened their convents to young victims who had rebelled against their exploiters.

At the outset, they faced many difficulties in assisting the victims – language barriers, cultural differences, moral conflicts, public opinion and, mainly, the legal status of the victims. Very soon, by listening to their dramatic stories, they came to understand that their “work” as prostitutes was not a choice they had made. What they were faced with was a new form of slavery.

This situation challenged our values, attitudes, traditions and our security, while at the same time it demanded immediate answers. Some female congregations responded positively with a prophetic intuition by providing shelters, language courses, training skills and job opportunities for the victims they encountered. In this new environment, victims were also able to heal their deep psychological and spiritual wounds caused by this humiliating experience. They were helped to regain their sense of self-worth, trust and hope. A major obstacle however remained: having no personal documents, these victims could not claim any legal rights in Italy.  

The response from the Italian Government

In collaboration with other forces and organizations that started giving attention to the phenomenon, a few courageous and determined steps were taken to find a solution.

1. Meetings with several women MPs to advocate, address and discuss the issue of human trafficking of thousands of women living and working on the streets, many of them already in protected shelters, to be rehabilitated and reintegrated into society;
2. Roundtable discussions for exchanging information, consultation and proposals among public institutions and private NGOs were also set up to address this issue;
3. The Inter-Ministerial Committee against the slave trade came into effect on February 24, 1998. It was comprised of representatives of several Ministries, mainly women, in collaboration and consultation with several NGOs insisting on granting legal status to victims of trafficking. This body was tasked with elaborating and presenting a special legislation to the Parliament, to be adopted in the new Immigration Law dealing with the prosecution of traffickers and the protection of victims.
4. On July 25, 1998 the Legislative Immigration Decree no. 286 was approved by the Italian Parliament and Art. 18 regarding trafficking in human beings came into effect.

The Content of the New Legislation

Article 18 of the Italian Alien Law envisages a new type of residence permit, referred to as “Residence permit for social protection or for humanitarian reasons”. The local police authority can issue this type of residence permit following two different procedures[3]:

1. Judicial procedure - when the victim escapes from traffickers, reports the case to the police against her exploiters and cooperates in the judicial proceedings;
2. Social procedure - when a woman wants to withdraw from the system of exploitation to which she has been exposed and accepts to undertake a rehabilitation programme carried out by a recognised NGO, without necessarily reporting her exploiters. In these special cases and for serious reasons, the NGO applies for the residence permit on behalf of the victim.

Conditions to Obtain a Resident Permit:

A woman can receive assistance and protection under Article 18 when she is:

• A victim of violence or exploitation and forced into prostitution;
• Ready to leave prostitution and asks for help, either from the local police authority or from some NGO’;
• In danger of further violence, due to testimony given about her traffickers;
• Willing to go through a social rehabilitation programme, mainly in a protected house during such a programme she will apply for legal documents;

Any project will be discontinued when the applicant for legal status does not comply with the above requirements.

The Application of the Law – Article 18 provides victims with:

A residence permit for six months that can be renewed for another six months, while the woman applies for a legal passport;

• The residence permit can be renewed for another year or be extended for a period equivalent to the term of a work contract, if the person concerned already has a job, or if she is attending a course. The residence permit is also valid for a study program when a woman has proper requirements.
• Every year the government allocates a budget for approved NGOs holding special programmes for counter-trafficking activities and rehabilitation of victims.

The main motive behind this law is the will and need to stop trafficking in human beings, to punish traffickers, to support and assist the victims in breaking their chains. 

3. The Prophetic Role of Women Religious

Women Rescuing and Promoting Women

Why do religious (women and men) care for those who are considered the waste of our society? Why do they reach out to immigrant women “imported” from different countries for sexual exploitation? The answer can only be found in the prophetic role of the “sequela Christi” in the light of the Gospel and in the strength of a specific Charism.

Religious life is, therefore, an expression of the prophetic mandate given by Christ to the Church. Like prophets, religious, too, have been called and sent on a mission ‘to set the downtrodden free’. Founders and Foundresses of religious congregations were prophetic people and were not afraid to respond creatively to the needs of their time.

Religious life, therefore, faithful to its mandate coming from the Gospel imperatives and from the specific charism of their congregations has a unique and prophetic role to play. This role can be achieved only if we join together to respond positively in the fight against the exploitation of human beings -- mainly women and children -- caught up in the international web of traffickers.

In Italy, the Italian Union of Major Superiors (USMI = Conference of women religious) coordinates this critical and challenging ministry of all women religious, with a specific "Counter Trafficking" Office. This trains and informs, supports and stimulates, encourages and links the network of individuals working on the issue.

At present in Italy, 250 sisters - belonging to 70 congregations - work in 110 projects, often in collaboration with Caritas, other public or private bodies, volunteers and associations, while maintaining their identity as consecrated women for a specific mission.

Several hundred victims, from various countries, are in our family-like shelters at this very moment, as the sisters offer their assistance in the following areas:

• Outreach Units which serve as a first contact with the victims on the streets;
• Drop-in Centres to identify the problems of women in search of assistance;
• Safe Communities or Shelters for programmes of social reintegration[4];
• Restoring Legal Status by assisting victims in the acquisition of documents[5];
• Professional/Vocational Preparation through language and job training;
• Psychological and Spiritual Assistance to help victims in rediscovering their cultural roots and faith, regaining their self-respect and confidence, and above all, assisting them in healing the deep wounds of their experience.

As religious sisters, our greatest strength and key to success in this ministry is to join our efforts in network. Traffickers are professional networkers – we must be, too. 

Building a Global Networking

Throughout the past few years, much has been achieved in giving voice, protection and hope to many voiceless women; however, much more still needs to be done to break this invisible chain, to rescue our young girls and give them back their stolen dignity. This can be achieved by:

• Joining efforts for more informed consultation and greater cooperation with government, NGOs, Caritas, religious and faith-based organisations and law enforcement in order to be more effective in eradicating this 21^st century slavery, with the goal to eliminate corruption, illicit profits and the great demand from millions of “consumers” of paid sex. Unfortunately, even today, the issue of ‘demand’ from consumers is very seldom addressed or highlighted.
• Networking with Sending Countries will form a strategic alliance. Aware of the great richness of our charisms of charity and of the reality of our presence in all parts of the world, we need to work in synergy between sending and receiving countries. Our natural network and our motivations could be of great help in preventing the exodus of so many young women in pursuit of better opportunities which quickly dissolve into real slavery[6].
• Cooperating with Religious Women in the Countries of Origin is another strategic approach. Our role and intervention for women in countries of destination can be effective only if it is in strict collaboration with the local Churches, Charitable Organizations and religious communities in the countries of origin.

The aim of such collaboration is to:

• establish consistent and timely exchange of information to monitor and understand the phenomenon at both frontiers and to discover new strategies of intervention;
• promote wide-ranging awareness campaigns to prevent the "exodus" of young women from their families, schools and parishes towards "the promised land";
• trace and protect the families of the victims against extortion and reprisal by the traffickers and exploiters;
• welcome and assist the social reintegration, through ad hoc projects, of young women who choose to return home on voluntary base;
• assist the large numbers of undocumented victims who are deported by European countries; considering that 10-15% of them return home HIV positive.

Proposals for Sending and Receiving Countries by:

• helping local Churches, clergy and religious congregations to leave aside differences and work together to carry out systematic information and prevention campaign, mainly in schools and in Parishes, with youth and women’s groups;
• facing the emergency of mass repatriation through supporting victims in reuniting with their families, reintegrating into society-- even with financed projects;
• urging Church leaders in countries involved in "trafficking" to assume their responsibility by denouncing courageously this social scourge, as the Nigerian Bishops did in 2002 with a Pastoral Letter: “Restoring the Dignity of Nigerian Women”;
• lobbying for proper legislation against trafficking and traffickers, as well as asking with force for the implementation of the existing laws if they are appropriate;
• creating an effective and strategic network with all faith-based organisations and conferences of Religious to respond positively to the new emergency;
• involving male clergy and religious congregations who, unfortunately, remain greatly absent from this battle and dialogue;
• offering full collaboration to all public and private forces, lay and religious, who work in this sector towards a common effort of eradicating the "trade" forever;
• collaborating with the mass media to promote dissemination of accurate information and effective public awareness campaigns about the problem;

Other initiatives carried out inter-congregation ally can also be mentioned:

• Anti-Trafficking Educational Kit for religious communities, seminaries, schools, parishes and youth groups, available in six languages - English, Italian, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Polish, and Romanian - has been prepared by a working group on Counter-Trafficking in Women and Children of the JPIC Commission of the International Union of Superiors General (UISG/USG).
• Weekly Visits by a group of 14 nuns - from several congregations and of different nationalities - to one of the 14 Temporary Detention Centres in Rome, for the pastoral care of 180 women awaiting forced expatriation, after being detained for 60 days, because they were found in Italy with no documents[7];
• A Training Programme for Women Religious was carried out between 2004 - 2008 in various countries touched by the phenomenon of trafficking in persons: Italy, Nigeria, Albania, Romania, Thailand, the Dominican Republic, Brazil, the Philippines, Portugal and South Africa.[8] The training was proposed by the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, financed by the U.S. Department of State and carried out by the International Organization for Migration (IOM), in collaboration with UISG and USMI.[9]
• An International Training Seminar was conducted in October 2007 in Rome by USMI, in collaboration with the U.S. Embassy to the Holy See, and financed by the U.S. Department of State’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons (G/TIP), for 33 sisters coming from 26 different countries. The aim of such an important gathering was to strengthen our network, make local Conferences of Religious aware of the phenomenon and help Congregations live our Prophetic role. The participants launched an international network (INRATIP/International Network of Religious Against Trafficking in Persons) and drafted a Public Statement to institutions and actors involved in trafficking in human beings.
• UISG/IOM Congress: Another important gathering was organised in Rome, June 2-6, 2008, for representatives of women religious who have previously attended one of the formation courses for sisters. Once again the aim was to evaluate the formation courses of sisters and try to move ahead by creating a real and strong international network to involve, in a concrete way, national religious conferences, congregations and sisters dealing with this ministry.

“A Call to Action: Joining the Fight against Trafficking in Persons”

If the U.S. Department of State annual TIP Report - assessing the efforts of foreign governments - highlights the “three P’s” – prevention, protection and prosecution – as part of a State's responsibilities in the fight against trafficking of human beings; we too as members of the same human family, are equally called to action and to commit ourselves by implementing “three R’s” – rescue, rehabilitation and reintegration.

According to different specific roles and positions we call:

• The global family to develop a strong economic system to offer women opportunities for a better life without being forced to sell her body;
• The States with proper legislation to suppress and punish trafficking in persons and to protect, legalize and reintegrate victims;
• Society to advocate for effective measures against the demand, to rescue men and safeguard the family values of fidelity, love and unity;
• The Church with its Christian vision of sexuality and man-woman relationship;
• The schools by forming and informing to the right values based on mutual respect;
• The media in projecting a complete, balanced and accurate image of women that restores her to her full human value, presenting her as a subject and not as an object.

Conclusion: Who is my Neighbour?

In a globalise world, we are all called to build a better future by joining together in the fight against all forms of poverty, discrimination, exploitation and inequality to build a society where everybody is accepted, valued, respected, appreciated and loved. No woman is born to be a “prostitute”, but simply reduced to be a slave by our consumer society. Women and men must be rescued, rehabilitated and reintegrated to form a new global family where everybody has an important role to play to ensure that we live in harmony, peace and love.

In accord with the new demands of a world that is constantly changing and in search of justice, solidarity, dignity and respect for the right of every person, especially the weak and the vulnerable, we are all called to offer our contribution. Only by networking and working together can we find success in our ministry to break this invisible chain of human trafficking, and give new hope to broken and exploited women.

In rediscovering our own prophetic role in the Church of Christ, women’s groups, faith-based communities and congregations of the third millennium will respond in a concrete and clear way to the question: "Who is my neighbour?" The answer cannot but be, "Go and do the same!"

May God help us to make His, and our, dreams a reality.