On July 30, the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, a Maryknoll lay missioner and attorney recounts situations of migrants trapped in exploitation and fear.
Mariana set out from Mexico with a border-crossing visa to accept an offer to care for an elderly woman in El Paso, Texas. She had worked and served her country in the military, and was raising her granddaughter, but found they could no longer make ends meet in Mexico. Before boarding the airplane, she was assured multiple times that the job would be legal and that the person hiring her would obtain lawful permission for her to work in the United States.
Months later, she was paid almost nothing, charged for everything she used, and working 24 hours a day. When she asked for more pay, the employer threatened to call the police or immigration on her. Mariana realized that it was all a lie. Kept from going out by herself, she was unable to seek help and afraid of retaliation. Finally, one day she grabbed her granddaughter and fled. Mariana is a survivor of human trafficking.
July 30th is the World Day against Trafficking in Persons. As an immigration attorney and a Maryknoll lay missioner, I work with partner organizations in various countries to end human trafficking. Maryknoll Lay Missioners fights for migrants who leave their homes in search of safety or survival and are exploited for the purposes of forced labor, commercial sex, forced illicit activities, and other coerced activities for the end profit of the trafficker.
Often the image that comes to mind when you hear of human trafficking is “runaway teens.” The reality is much more complicated, and within the migrant population, much more nuanced. Human trafficking is characterized by an act (such as recruitment, transportation or harboring of people) and a specific means (threats or use of force, deception, fraud, abuse of power or abusing someone’s vulnerable condition) for the purpose of exploitation (for example, sexual abuse or forced labor). There is no defining characteristic that all human trafficking victims share: anyone could be a target. However, traffickers regularly prey on migrants, who are vulnerable due to cultural and language differences, difficulties in the country they left behind and empty promises in the destination country such as jobs and false romantic relationships.
The majority of traffickers, 74%, operate within organized crime groups that traffic more victims, for more time, across longer distances, with greater violence, and for greater profit, according to the United Nations Office on Drug and Crime 2025 Campaign Against Human Trafficking.
Trafficking increases as vulnerable migrants are pushed to more dangerous routes and exploitation by restrictive policies and closed borders. The U.N. advocates for regular pathways for migrants that foster safe and dignified journeys.
Maryknoll Lay Missioner Heidi Cerneka, who worked with the Brazilian bishops’ Prison Pastoral Office, gave testimony on Brazilian prisons for women to the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights in Washington, D.C. (CNS/Bob Roller/U.S.)
Enrique chose to leave his county, hoping to find work to support himself and his family back home in rural Guatemala. But he did not choose what happened to him on the way, including kidnapping and violence. When he was eventually forced to work cleaning the kidnappers’ residence to preserve his life, he also suffered human trafficking through forced labor.
Like Enrique, many migrants set off freely on the difficult migration journey. This makes it difficult to recognize when the situation changes, and they lose their freedom to make decisions or to even to physically circulate freely. They may then be forced to work, to provide sex or even to carry drugs across the border. The U.N. Palermo Protocol states clearly that whether a victim of trafficking initially consented to the intended exploitation is irrelevant. Frequently, migrants who set off on the journey to safety and asylum, however, to blame themselves because they said “yes” to a risky situation.
In El Paso, I work with Las Americas Immigrant Advocacy Center to represent migrants who have suffered human trafficking and who seek protection and immigration relief.
They can qualify for what is called a “T visa” which will allow them to remain safely in the United States if they agree to collaborate with law enforcement’s efforts to stop human trafficking. We also work with local agencies in both Ciudad Juárez and El Paso to identify survivors and assist them in accessing their rights.
In my work as a lay missioner, I have seen human trafficking in many forms around the world. In São Paulo, Brazil, I advocate for migrant women who have been forced into transporting drugs. For over 25 years, the Institute for Land, Work, and Citizenship (Instituto Terra, Trabalho e Cidadania) has accompanied women from over 60 countries who are tricked by job offers and false romances into coming to São Paulo only to find themselves forced to attempt to carry drugs out of the country.
Death threats made against their children or their family leave them with no option. One woman told us that when she refused to transport drugs, the man grabbed his cell phone and made a call. On the line she heard her children playing in the background in Venezuela. Someone was outside her home.
The 2024 UNODC Global Report on Trafficking of Persons now identifies trafficking for forced criminality as third in terms of the number of victims detected. It can be understood as “trafficking in persons for the purpose of exploitation of victims through forcing or otherwise compelling them to commit criminal acts for economic or other gains of traffickers or exploiters.”
In South Africa, Cheryl responded to a job ad. After two interviews and filling out paperwork with her personal information, she was offered a job buying and selling shoes — and was thrilled when it included international travel to make purchases. She flew to Brazil on her first assignment. Upon arrival, she discovered that the job was a lie, and that she would have to carry a suitcase of drugs back to South Africa. When she refused, her family was threatened. She realized that the job application had requested all her personal information, including the name of her children’s school. Fearing for her family, Cheryl took the suitcase and went to the airport, where she arrested and later sentenced to four years in prison for drug trafficking.
Our work is to challenge the judges, prosecutors and the public to recognize that Cheryl is a victim of human trafficking and not a drug trafficker. According to Brazilian law and the U.N. Palermo Protocol, which Brazil signed, she should be protected, not convicted.
As we commemorate the World Day against Trafficking in Persons, let us commit to safeguarding the rights of the most vulnerable people across the globe. Migrants are not commodities for smugglers and traffickers to use and discard. As people of faith, and as human beings, we know that every one of us is blessed, loved and equally deserving of rights and protection.
Featured image: Maryknoll Sister Abby Avelino, international coordinator of Talitha Kum, an international network of religious working against human trafficking, far left, joins young people mobilized against human trafficking in St. Peter’s Square for Pope Francis’ recitation of the Angelus prayer at the Vatican Jan. 19, 2025. (CNS/Vatican Media/Vatican City)
