National Human Trafficking Awareness Day
11 January was National Human Trafficking Awareness Day in the United States. The global statistics are staggering with Sex or Labor Trafficking impacting the lives of 600,000 to 800,000 children, women and men who were taken across international borders into forced servitude.
I met Julius on 11 January. He is the face of one of those who were trafficked for labor. Desperately needing a job to provide for his wife and four children, he accepted work which required him to travel from Slovakia to England.
“They were nice at first,” he stated before sharing how his passport and identification papers were taken. The pay they promised, a generous $50 a day, stopped after the second week. After three months abroad, doing work for which he was never paid, he was able to get back home. He never sent any money home and returned without any money in his pocket.
We were put in contact with Julius because of a house fire which destroyed all their belongings. Dianne was able to collect a load of used clothes in just a matter of hours after making contact with parents from the school where she volunteers. We are thankful that we were able to assist this family and share with them the message that God loves them. Julius’s story of being trafficked is a reminder that not every tragedy is accidental – like the fire. Human Trafficking is a man-made evil which destroys lives.
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