This past year in South Asia, I learned firsthand the challenges and complexities of fighting forced labor slavery. Our office worked exclusively to counter this specific type of human trafficking -- investigators identify factories or facilities using forced laborers, a team of social workers and lawyers work with local government officials to rescue these victims according to the law, rehabilitate them, and then prosecute the owners who perpetuate this crime.
Each of IJM's field offices focuses on a particular form of violent injustice. Working with laws already on the books, IJM seeks to rescue individual victims and fix the broken public justice system. The past few weeks at IJM's headquarters have opened my eyes wide to more of these injustices: sex trafficking of minors, illegal police detention, unprosecuted sexual assault.
Yesterday, I celebrated with colleagues halfway across the world as they rescued women and girls who had been trafficked into a dark world of sexual exploitation and coercive fear:
As dawn broke yesterday morning, IJM and local police conducted simultaneous operations at two brothels, freeing approximately 30 trafficking victims, among them girls as young as 13. The rescued girls and women are now receiving care from IJM social workers. Seven suspected perpetrators have been taken into police custody, and police have locked the brothels to prevent their re-opening.
A spark of hope has been ignited for these young women. And another torch on the long path towards justice burns brightly today.
2 comments:
praise the Lord!
A spark of hope. Love that!
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