n order to help raise awareness among church members worldwide of the horror and prevalence of human trafficking, the Seventh-day Adventist Church has joined a coalition of nonprofit organizations, under the director of the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, that are committed to eradicating this international inhumanity.

Ralph Benko and Kari Rai, consultants to the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS), met at the church's world headquarters in Silver Springs, Maryland, on November 3 with General Conference (GC) women's ministries director and associate director Ardis Stenbakken and Heather-Dawn Small, GC Public Affairs and Religious Liberty (PARL) assistant director James Standish, GC children's ministries director Linda Koh, and PARL specialist Viola Hughes. The GC representatives agreed to share information with those in their departments and, consequently, the entire Adventist Church membership, about human trafficking and how to find help for victims of this practice.

"We've been working with human trafficking issues for maybe 10 years," said Stenbakken, who explained that she first became aware of the dimensions of the problem when she attended the 1995 United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women in Beijing, China.

"Between 800,000 and 900,000 people fall victim to human trafficking each year," said Benko. "About 18,000 to 20,000 are brought into the United States from Asia, Central and South America, and Eastern Europe. Victims of human trafficking are subjected to force, fraud, or coercion, for the purpose of sexual exploitation or forced labor."

"We are not talking about [just a] Third World problem," said Small. "It's everybody's problem."

Steve Wagner, Director of the US Department of Health and Human Services Trafficking in Persons program

According to government reports, many victims of human trafficking are forced to work in prostitution or the sex entertainment industry. But trafficking also involves labor exploitation, such as domestic, restaurant, janitorial, sweatshop factory, and migrant agricultural work. Some traffickers keep victims locked up; other traffickers instill fear in victims using methods such as debt bondage, threats of violence, confiscation of passports or other identification documents, isolation from family and friends, and telling victims they will be imprisoned or deported for immigration violations if they contact authorities. Trafficking of humans is estimated to be the second-largest criminal industry in the world after drug dealing, and the fastest growing. The U.S. State Department estimates human trafficking to be a $13 billion-per-year global industry.

As a result of inhumane living conditions, victims of trafficking often suffer from many physical and psychological health problems, such as HIV/AIDS; chronic back, hearing, cardiovascular, and respiratory problems from working in dangerous agriculture, sweatshop, or construction conditions; malnourishment; serious dental problems; tuberculosis; and psychological trauma. Often it is the children who suffer the most.

The Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000 was enacted to provide victims with a temporary visa, called a T-visa, which allows those freed from trafficking to remain in the U.S. for up to three years, with the opportunity to apply for residency. Prior to the enactment of TVPA, no comprehensive Federal law existed to protect victims of trafficking or to prosecute the traffickers, and many victims were being deported as illegal aliens. The U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) is designated as the agency responsible for helping victims of human trafficking become eligible to receive benefits and services, including food, health care, and employment assistance.

The problem, however, is that most trafficking victims don't know the law, and they need advocates to help them. That is why HHS has organized a new program, called the Rescue and Restore Victims of Trafficking Campaign, to heighten awareness of this abuse and to help people identify victims and give them information on where to get help. HHS is particularly targeting those who are more likely to come in contact with trafficking victims, such as vice officers, pastors, nonprofit workers, farmers, and emergency room attendants.

"Victims of trafficking require fast, safe, and reliable help," said Wade F. Horn, assistant secretary for Children and Families at HHS. "The Rescue and Restore Victims of Trafficking Campaign will educate the public on how they can assist, while giving victims the immediate aid they need."

In 2003, U.S. President George Bush signed legislation that authorized more than $200 million to be used by the federal government to combat the practice of human trafficking. At the United Nations General Assembly in September 2003, Bush said, "Nearly two centuries after the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade, and more than a century after slavery was officially ended, the trade in human beings for any purpose must not be allowed to thrive in our time."

U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Tommy G. Thompson, in a written statement in December 2003, said, "By signing the reauthorization of the federal human trafficking program, the president is reaffirming his administration's commitment to end the horror of human trafficking, and to ensure that the real criminals-the traffickers of innocent people-are persecuted to the fullest extent of the law."

For More Information Trafficking in Human Beings -- Official Website of the United Nations Responses to Human Trafficking -- Human Trafficking news from the U.S. Department of State Humantrafficking.org -- The Asian Regional Initiative against Trafficking in Woman and Children The Polaris Project -- The Polaris Projected was founded by Katherine Chon and Derek Ellerman to address the vital need for direct intervention, grassroots advocacy, and survivor support to combat human trafficking. Look Beneath the Surface -- The U.S Department of Health & Human Services' initiative to restore trafficking victims. FI Human Trafficking Program -- An initiative by Franciscans International, a non-governmental organization at the U.N.

"Human trafficking is one of the most pressing human rights challenges of our time," said the Honorable Denise L. Majette, U.S. Representative for the Fourth Congressional District of Georgia, during the inauguration of the Rescue and Restore program in Atlanta in April 2004. "It will take vigilant citizenry to fight the criminals who turn the lives of so many into living nightmares." According to HHS Trafficking in Persons program director Steve Wagner, a Trafficking Information and Referral Hotline connects social service providers, law enforcement, and potential trafficking victims to local organizations that determine whether someone is a victim and provide services and benefits for victims. Operators who speak 150 languages are available to assist callers 24 hours a day, seven days a week.

"Rescue and Restore is very respectful of the international leadership that the Adventist Church has provided under the direction of Ardis Stenbakken long before it became a more widely known issue," said Benko. "The Adventists have been in the forefront [of dealing with this issue]." "Early Adventists stood up against slave traders," said PARL assistant director James Standish. "Adventists today are once again standing up against those who make a trade of human beings. I am proud to be part of a church that doesn't simply sit on the sidelines wringing its hands when God's children are being brutally mistreated."

With more than 13 million members worldwide, and with an ethnically diverse membership "on the frontline," Benko says the Adventist Church can reach a wide variety of people with this message, and many members are working in positions in which there is a high likelihood of discovering human trafficking.

For more information and to connect victims with someone in the United States who can help, call 1-888-373-7888.

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Taashi Rowe, editorial assistant for Adventist News Network, also contributed to this story.