Sex Trafficking Victims: Disposable or Human

There are those who would argue that human trafficking is the inevitable outcome of poverty and that some poverty-stricken people choose willingly to be involved. But, as Ambassador Lagon pointed out, “There is a growing refusal to accept enslavement as an inevitable product of poverty or human viciousness. Corruption is typically poverty’s handmaiden in cases of human trafficking.”

CWA is pleased to be among those that Ambassador Lagon called an “indomitable force.” We and other evangelical Christians are at the forefront of this battle as modern-day abolitionists who work for the human rights of women and for the dignity of all of God’s people. We agree with Ambassador Lagon that trafficking in persons “shouldn’t be regulated or merely mitigated; it must be abolished.” The victims of this crime are among the “most degraded, most exploited, and most dehumanized people in the world.” We join the ambassador in declaring, “Exploiters must be stigmatized, prosecuted, and squeezed out of existence.”

Those who treat people as commercial commodities –– pimps, madams and johns –– are slavers who buy and sell human beings as disposable goods for their brothels, factories or fields. We must work for good laws and good law enforcement that will treat human trafficking as a criminal offense that will be investigated and the perpetrators prosecuted, convicted and punished to the fullest extent of the law. Otherwise, such crimes undermine everyone’s liberty and freedom; only corruption-free democratic processes create a society where peace and prosperity are possible for all citizens.