Human trafficking is a form of modern-day slavery in which hundreds of thousands of people — many of them minors— are coerced into forced labor and the sex industry. Human trafficking is a human rights and human dignity issue of which many people are unaware, yet it is beginning to gain more attention.

The U.S. government estimates that between 600,000 and 800,000 people are trafficked across international borders each year. Up to as many as 17,500 are brought into the United States, and an estimated one-third of them are children.

Pope Benedict XVI addressed this issue when he told the bishops of Sri Lanka, “No effort should be spared to urge civil authorities and the international community to fight these abuses and to offer children the legal protection they deserve.”

English Archbishop Michael Fitzgerald, papal nuncio to Egypt and the Arab League, has urged Catholics to fight this modern-day slavery with the same zeal as the early abolitionists. “Christians have a special reason for fighting against slavery in all its forms, for it is a fundamental offense against human dignity,” he said in a Jan. 17 talk in London.

Kentucky took a step in this direction last week when the General Assembly passed Senate Bill 43, which makes human trafficking a felony offense. This bill, which was supported by the Catholic Conference of Kentucky, adds Kentucky to a list of more than two dozen states that have enacted similar laws.

The original SB 43, sponsored by Sen. David Boswell of Owensboro, also would have created a Division of Child Abuse, Domestic Violence and Human Trafficking Services in the state Cabinet for Health and Human Services to assist victims of human trafficking. This part of the bill was removed from the legislation that was passed for budgetary reasons. But it is a needed service that should be provided when the General Assembly enacts the biennial state budget next year.

The importance of providing services to the victims of human trafficking was underscored by Sister of Charity of Nazareth Nancy Gerth in an article in the recent edition of “The Journey,” a publication of the SCNs. Sister Gerth works at Covenant House/Casa Allianza in Florida with survivors of human trafficking, and she related the tragic story of one young man being helped there.

Sister Gerth said the young man she identified as Alejandro was 15 when he was kidnapped in Guatemala and taken to Arizona, where for more than a year and a half he was forced to live as a “drug mule” (swallowing balloons of cocaine and delivering them to dealers) and as a prostitute.

He eventually was able to escape from his captors and ended up in Texas, where some people helped him. They arranged for him to go to Miami and live in a Catholic Charities program until he was 18. He then came to Covenant House Florida.

Alejandro began to experience seizures and was in and out of the hospital for treatment, Sister Gerth said. After numerous tests to find the causes of the seizures, she said, it was determined that he was “faking” the seizures to get attention.

“It was recognized that he was having seizures because of the psychological trauma of the trafficking,” Sister Gerth wrote. “Any feeling of anxiety could trigger a seizure.”

Sister Gerth said Alejandro is receiving therapy and learning to manage his anger and grief. His goal is improve his English and to obtain his GED.

“We marvel at his positive attitude and how grateful he is after all he has experienced,” Sister Gerth wrote. “He has changed our hearts. I wish you could meet Alejandro — if you ever wonder where God is, I think you would be convinced that God is truly among us.”

There are many similar survivors of human trafficking who need the help Alejandro is receiving. One Filipino woman forced into the sex trade in the Northern Mariana Islands (a U.S. territorial island) told of her experiences recently to a U.S. Senate committee. Victims “are just afraid to speak out because they do not know where to go or just because they have to support their families back home,” she said.

Making human trafficking a criminal offense is a first step in addressing this problem. Kentucky has done this. But as the state Catholic conference noted, Kentucky also “needs to enact a law that will help identify the victims and provide services to help them rebuild their lives.”

That’s what the original SB 43 sought to do. And this remains the unfinished work of the General Assembly on human trafficking.