Methodist Church calls for action on sex trafficking

Sex trafficking is one of the most tragic and alarming productsof today's society, where women and children are forced or coercedinto prostitution. Each year several hundred thousand women aretrafficked across Europe and in their Social Action Project, theWomen's Network of the Methodist Church is calling for peoplethroughout the Methodist Church in the UK to take action againstthis modern-day slavery.

A major resource pack, designed to support this project, drawstogether a variety of different resources from organisations suchas Amnesty International and the Conference of European Churches aswell as three practical action guides produced by the Women'sNetwork.

The aim of the pack is to support individuals and groups as theycampaign through letter writing, to urge the government to sign upto the European Convention on Human Trafficking which willencourage the government to do more for victims oftrafficking.

As well as listing further resources, the practical action guideshighlight concerns about the creation of temporary brothels for the2006 Football World Cup in Germany. During this tournament, morebrothels than usual will be operating near each stadium. Manyforeign sex workers are expected to arrive for the tournament, asvictims of forced prostitution and people trafficking. Therefore akey objective of this pack is to discourage those attending theWorld Cup from visiting brothels.

Margaret Sawyer, Secretary of the Women's Network said:'trafficking is such a huge issue that we can feel powerless in theface of it, but this resource pack gives real, practical solutionsshowing how anyone can make a difference. We are campaigning onthis at a national level, but there is so much that can be donelocally. We cannot let this despicable practice continueunchallenged'.


The Trafficking resource pack is available from The Women' NetworkOffice, Methodist Church House 25 Marylebone Road London NW1 5JRTel: 0207467 5175. Price £10.00 + P&P £3.20.