MANY PEOPLE, especially Christians and Irish people, celebrated on March 17 the feast day of St. Patrick, the patron saint of Ireland, in memory of the values he brought to the then-pagan nation in the year 410. There have been parades, videos, speeches and sharing the shamrock, a symbol of Ireland, to mark the occasion.
As I have previously written, the life, words and deeds of Saint Patrick showed that he was a great spiritual leader. He inspired many people with his courage and his belief that truth, action for justice, and love of neighbor can overcome malicious situations. He converted the Celtic rulers and their followers, and his former masters, in living true Christian lives where human dignity is respected.
Patrick was 16 when he was kidnapped by human traffickers around the year 410. The raiders crossed the Irish Sea to Wales in search for people to capture and enslave. They captured Patrick and brought to Ireland as a slave and was forced to guard cattle and goats. He endured a lonely and hard life living on the mountainside, in cold winters and hot summers, with little shelter and no companions, far from his caring family. His father was a deacon and his grandfather, a priest.
He put his trust in God, and Jesus of Nazareth was his friend and companion, especially during his lonely years. That gave him support and encouragement, inspiring him to escape. He was a victim of human trafficking, a common crime in those days that even persists today.
Patrick learned to speak Irish during this time, and after six years of slavery, he escaped and traveled from the north to the south of Ireland. He made his way to continental Europe by boat, likely working for his passage. From there, he made it back to Wales. That was a brave and courageous journey to freedom for a 20-year-old.
There are an estimated 160 million child workers in the world today. Of these, 79 million are doing dangerous tasks, according to a United Nations report. The UN Children’s Fund has said of the Philippines: “Children are commonly trafficked for exploitation in the sex trade — an estimated 60,000 to 100,000 children in the Philippines are involved in prostitution rings. There is a high incidence of child prostitution in tourist areas. An undetermined number of children are forced into exploitative labor operations.”
“Among the main causes of child trafficking in the Philippines are poverty, low economic development in communities of origin, gender inequalities, limited employment opportunities, existence of and access to public infrastructure (roads, schools, health centers, etc.), large family sizes, inadequate awareness among families, and sex tourism,” the UN report said.
Child laborers receive little or no education, and earn a pittance or are usually unpaid and work for food. If you are wearing clothes made in Asia, it’s likely that child laborers helped make them. A leading British brand allegedly sells clothes made in Myanmar, where 14-year-old children work as long as 12 hours a day, according to a Swedish book, “Fashion Slaves.”
Child sexual exploitation — online and off — is the most dangerous forced labor of all. Such exploited children can be as young as 4 years old. Such exploitation damages the child’s mind and spirit, robs him or her of his identity, deprives him or her of value, and takes away his or her dignity. The children are not only exposed physical, sexual and psychological abuse by traffickers, parents and pedophiles, but also to diseases.
Children abused in their own homes by relatives suffer greatly and are powerless to stop the abuse. When they are able to run away and flee to the streets, they are often recruited by traffickers. Since its establishment in 1974, the Preda Foundation has freed, healed and educated over 1,530 children jailed for being street children and accused of using illegal drugs.
Since 1996, Preda social workers have healed and empowered thousands of child victims of human trafficking and sexual abuse, and have preventive education programs for students, parents, teachers and other duty-bearers.
The evil practice of child abuse and human trafficking, especially online child abuse, is allowed to thrive with impunity by uncaring government officials for many decades. In recent years, stringent anti-trafficking and anti-child abuse laws were passed, but weakly enforced. The United States Trafficking in Persons Report for 2023 says Philippine courts convicted only 86 traffickers of children — 83 for sex trafficking and three for forced labor. Preda children, with the Preda legal team, convicted 27 traffickers and child abusers in 2024 alone, with most getting life terms.
Years after escaping slavery, Saint Patrick became a priest and a missionary to Ireland and persuaded its pagan kings, leaders and people to believe in human dignity and justice, and end slavery. And they did. Saint Patrick saved thousands of people from slavery, and we can, too. Mission today is calling us to take a stand against human exploitation, abuse, human trafficking and exploitation of migrants.
In the past 15 years, tens of thousands of migrant children have disappeared after arriving in Europe. An investigation discovered that over 18,000 children went missing between 2018 and 2020 alone. Mission calls us to stand against the powers that criminally exploit children and allow child abuse in the church and society. To say nothing and do nothing about abused children is a silence of consent and tolerance. Saint James wrote that faith without action is dead. Real faith is doing good for the poor and exploited, opposing evil and believing that, one day, we can win./PN
