A new global network to fight human trafficking is getting off the ground.
The World Evangelical Alliance (WEA) and the European Freedom Network (EFN), which campaigns on the issue among continental believers, are working together on the initiative.
An estimated 43 million people worldwide are caught up in this modern form of slavery, in which women, men and children are exploited, bought and sold for economic gain.
The newly formed World Freedom Network (WFN) brings together a variety of organisations and experts with a specific focus on how churches can get involved and help address the issue locally. New WFN Global Director Leanne Rhodes says: ‘Human trafficking is a worldwide organised crime and needs a global response to combat it. I am excited to see the WFN become an integral part of the solution, both by equipping and connecting Christian professionals working in this area and also engaging churches across the globe to act locally and nationally’.
Human trafficking is a complex problem that plays out differently across the world. In some regions the main focus is trafficking for labour, while elsewhere the focus is sexual exploitation. Other countries’ consumer choices contribute in different ways. In Europe, EFN’s high-profile campaign ‘Don’t Shut Your Eyes’ has highlighted how pornography fuels human trafficking.
The WFN aims to build autonomous regional networks that engage with the problem in their particular context – whilst simultaneously joining with other regions to represent the global Christian response to human trafficking. In many places, the WFN will be able to build upon the existing structures and efforts among the WEA’s constituency of regional and national Evangelical Alliances that bring together churches and ministries in 143 countries.
Evangelicals have long been involved in the fight against human trafficking, Thomas Schirrmacher, Secretary General of the WEA, says that when the term ‘evangelical’ emerged in the 19th century it referred to those British Christians who were fighting slavery. The WEA inherited this legacy when it was founded in London in 1846, 13 years after slavery was officially abolished across the British Empire.
