Santa Marta Group

Thursday 8th February is the Feast Day of St Josephine Bakhita – the patron saint of victims of modern slavery and human trafficking.

The Modern Slavery Bill 2018 was passed in both Houses of Parliament in Australia and subsequently received royal assent.

At the conclusion of the conference representatives from the Church signed a declaration to commit to eradicate human trafficking within society.

In a message during a World Fisheries Day panel discussion Cardinal Turkson said that fishers are “crying out for help and, as Church, we cannot shut our ears and we cannot remain silent.”

Cardinal Onaiyekan praised the new partnerships between the Church and law enforcement describing it as key to the addressing the “tragedy of rampant modern day slavery and trafficking”. 

A major report has been launched by COR and the Arise Foundation mapping the extraordinary contribution to anti-trafficking by UK Religious, from front line individuals.

A major anti-trafficking conference is taking place in Abuja, Nigeria this week. Organised by the Santa Marta Group and hosted by Caritas Nigeria.  It has as its theme “Church and state working together to restore dignity to trafficked persons”.  It is the first Santa Marta Group Africa Regional Conference.

Archbishop Bernardito Auza, the Holy See’s Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York on Nov. 9 addressed a conference on “Practical Solutions to Eradicate Human Trafficking”.