Stop the Traffik All too often it is too easy to close your eyes to the injustice and inequalities of society because of the perceived progresses society has made.

This month’s commemorations of the bicentenary of the slave trade is bringing this home in ways that can not be clearer. The massive trade in lives from Guinea, the Congo, Angola and other parts of West Africa to America and the United Kingdom were important for the economic development of the United States, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Panama, Peru, nearly all of the West Indies, Venezuela.

In less than 60 years the population of slaves in America increased from the 300,000 to over 4million!

It wasn’t until following the work of campaigners in the United Kingdom that the 'Abolition of the Slave Trade Act' was passed on March 25, 1807 after countless people had lost their lives in Africa, while being transported and when they arrived in America and England.

Next week will be the annivesary of the passing of that Act.

It strikes me as I look around at society we all too often fall into the trap of thinking that everything is alright. The recent ‘Stop the Traffik’ Campaign tells a different story, however. The smuggling of woman and children for forced prostitution is has been discussed in the media for many years but because of the anniversay this is the year to highlight the extent of this modern form we are becoming more aware of the ongoing slave trade more 200 years after the Slave Trade Act was passed in the UK.

Shame!

Those who are traffiked do not agree to be trafficked: they are tricked, lured by false promises, or forced into it. The illegal nature of trafficking means that no one knows the exact number of figures of those who are traffiked. A US Government, however, reports that and estimated 800,000-900,000 people worldwide are trafficked across borders each year. This figure does not include those who are trafficked internally.

It’s all very profound when you think that about the Old Testament stories of the social injustices perpertrated by Judah, Israel and surrounding nations as detailed by Amos. Those nations were destroyed for reasons much akin to these.

Injustices still persist against the poor, the weak, and the powerless. Is it incumbant on churches to step in? If we don’t, what are we guilty off – either collectively or individually?

View the film detailing Wilberfoces campaign to abolish slavery /> View the campaign, 'Stop the Traffic'