Tech companies and technology are doing “amazing” work in helping to prevent human trafficking according to a trustee of Religious in Europe Networking Against Trafficking and Exploitation (Renate).
Addressing a Commission for the Status of Women (CSW) event on the topic “Migrant Women, Human Trafficking and Homelessness”, British nun Sr Imelda Poole IBVM, who heads the Mary Ward Loreto Foundation in Albania, said technology was helping to uncover the routes of traffickers and shine a light on their cyber-sex trafficking.
The use of IT in rescue and prevention work was one of four themes in her address. She spoke about how DNA tracing had played a role in reuniting children trafficked from Haiti to Colombia in the wake of the catastrophic 2011 earthquake.
But she also said that a lot more needed to be done especially in relation to the dark web where crimes are taking place and transnational crimes gangs operate.
Sr Imelda referred to research by Unanima International, which advocates at the United Nations on behalf of women and children, showing that up to one in six people who are homeless have been exposed to human trafficking, and research by the Loyola University which indicates that 60 per cent of homeless people are exposed to human trafficking.
She said women and children are the most vulnerable to such realities and suffering.
Homelessness among young people who are often in care in Britain meant that some children have been groomed by people on the streets before they reach 16, she warned.
“They are children who feel lost and lonely, children who want a better life and they are easily groomed into behaviour that is impossible for them to handle.” This included sexual exploitation.
The Loreto sister said that because the children had run away, they often couldn’t get back into care.
Another major challenge is the war in Ukraine which has seen over five million people displaced.
“It is Poland who is taking the brunt of caring” through housing and schooling, she said, citing the work of Renate member Sr Gabriela Hasiura, a Passionist Sister of St Paul of the Cross who runs a kindergarten school in Poland.
A quarter of the children attending her school are now Ukrainian.
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