By Tom Tracy - Florida Catholic
Photographer: COURTESY PHOTO
Roza Pati, law professor and director of the Human Trafficking Academy at St. Thomas University, greets Pope Francis at a meeting in Rome. Pati is the only U.S. representative at the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace, which is headed by Cardinal Peter Turkson of Ghana, seen here behind the pope.
MIAMI | When Pope Francis visits three U.S. cities next week, his talks will probably touch on issues of immigration and human trafficking.
The latter topic is especially of interest to one lay expert, a Miami-based Catholic academic who has focused on studying and advocating against the “shameful plague” that Pope Francis has called human trafficking.
Roza Pati is a professor of law at St. Thomas University and director of the school’s Human Trafficking Academy. In August 2012, Pope Emeritus Benedict XVI appointed her a member of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace. She is the only council member representing the United States.
Pati formerly served as a member of Parliament and Secretary of State for Youth and Women in Albania. She talked with The Florida Catholic about human trafficking in light of the upcoming papal visit:
In the last few years, how has the human trafficking-immigration issue "played out" or evolved here domestically in the U.S., in your view?
Mobile groups such as refugees, internally displaced persons and economic migrants have constantly been vulnerable to human trafficking. Actually, the proliferation of human trafficking in the last few decades has been the result of the global failure to manage migration. Hence, immigration laws have not been able to control illegal migration, nor to protect innocent migrants from falling prey to modern slavers. U.S. law � particularly as it relates to human trafficking � through T-Visas and U-visas, has evolved to make it easier for trafficking victims to rectify their status, but it has not yet succeeded in addressing the problem comprehensively.
In April the Vatican’s Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences offered recommendations at the plenary session on “Human Trafficking: Issues beyond Criminalization.” Can you discuss that?
In addition to the well-known policies of prevention, criminalization and demand-reduction, the recommendations shed light on important matters that relate to people's migration, such as challenging the default rule of repatriation of victims into their country of origin, and encouraging resettlement instead. It suggested that the “country of destination should bear the highest burden for the resettlement of victims, including identification, documentation and humanitarian services.” It is refreshing to see the extraordinary efforts of the Catholic Church with the vigorous involvement of its men and women religious as well as its laity, to end the greatest assault to human dignity.
No country is immune from human trafficking today, so what do we see here in Florida?
Human trafficking happens all around us: A 20-year-old Miami woman gets arrested for luring a 14-year old runaway girl into prostitution; a Florida man is arrested for promising lucrative escort service jobs to young women and then holding them against their will into forced labor; a North Lauderdale man gets convicted of child sex tourism, to mention but a few cases. The legal response has also been robust. In addition to the federal law, Florida has sharply answered human trafficking with its state law, which continues to be amended and enriched with new sections and bills.
In Florida this past June, HB 369 Human Trafficking Bill was signed into law. Can you talk about that?
It requires the display of human trafficking public awareness and reporting signs in certain business locations such as strip clubs, massage parlors and hospitals. The civil society, including universities, the public and private sector have all intensified their efforts in combating labor and sex trafficking. There is much more awareness amongst the community. According to the Department of Children and Families, calls to report potential incidences of human trafficking in the state have more than doubled in the last four years. This is a very good indicator, though we still have a long way to go to be able to claim a society free of modern slave-work and services.
How has civil society at large gained more experience and expertise in providing useful services to trafficking victims?
One important initiative is the (U.S. bishops’) nationwide campaign focusing on anti-trafficking education and awareness-raising. This is an initiative worth mentioning because it is centered on the empowerment from within. It bases itself on the resilience and audacity of the victim-survivor, following St. Josephine Bakhita’s example � the Sudanese slave who fought her case up to the Supreme Court of Italy. The campaign aims at and is building a network of migrant communities, led by their own local representatives; (it) organizes awareness events to (train) local immigrant members of the community � to understand the dynamics of human trafficking, its dangers, the modalities of operation of modern slavers and the techniques they use.
A most recent act signed into law this past June is the "Girls Count Act of 2015.” Can you talk about that?
It authorizes the Secretary of State and the administrator of the U.S. Agency for International Development to prioritize efforts to support the rights of women and girls in developing countries. This statute aims at creating greater protections for the rights of women and girls in the developing world through birth registration. It is estimated that globally 36 percent of children under the age of five do not possess a birth certificate or national identity card. This exacerbates their vulnerability to all forms of human trafficking: commercial sexual exploitation, child marriage, child labor, arrest and treatment as adults in the justice system, or forcible conscription in armed forces.
We've heard a lot comment lately on Mexico as perhaps a major source human trafficking. Your thoughts?
The issue of porous borders is not one that can be ignored. The fact that numerous undocumented migrants cross our border with Mexico into the U.S. daily includes the reality that many trafficking victims are smuggled into the country. We know this for a fact even if we only count the court cases and nothing else. So while Mexico might not necessarily be a prime source of human trafficking victims, it is indeed a transit country for trafficking victims from Central and South America and beyond. What starts as human smuggling in many cases ends up as human trafficking.
Can you imagine what message Pope Francis will have for Congress on these issues?
I expect Pope Francis to reiterate his call for care for the “least among us,” reduction of poverty that makes people vulnerable, and fight against complicity in issues that relate to human trafficking. He will urge politicians, as he has done before, to act decisively in order “to remove the causes of this shameful plague,” that he finds unworthy of a “civilized society,” and “an open wound on the body of contemporary society.” He will call for a clear shift and change in the mentality that permits seeing a human being as an object. He will call for a more humane immigration law and policy, and above all for commitment to mitigate international imbalances in economy, finance, and politics in order to combat the rising inequality and poverty within and between nations.
Anything else on the role and leadership of Pope Francis in terms of migrants and human trafficking?
From day one of his pontificate, the Holy Father has called human trafficking by its true name: a crime against humanity that has to be eradicated. Particularly, the Holy Father’s Message for the 48th World Day of Peace, January 1, 2015, on the theme “Slaves no more, but brothers and sisters,” called human beings all over the world to transform social relations from a relationship of dependence-slavery of other men; from the negation of the humanity of the other person into a relationship of fraternity, into a status of respect for the inalienable and inviolable dignity of each and every human being� In 2013, Pope Francis provided the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences with the assignment to take up the issue of the global scourge of human trafficking and come up with new ideas and recommendations for solutions to the worldwide problem.
