The Catholic Times reports:

Last week Pope Francis addressed members of the Pontifical Academy of Social Sciences which dedicated its plenary assembly to examining the phenomenon of human trafficking including the trafficking of migrants. The Bible insists that Christians will be judged by how they cared for “the least” of their brothers and sisters, he said. “And today among these most needy brothers and sisters are those who suffer the tragedy of modern forms of slavery, forced labour, prostitution” as well as the victims of trafficking in organs and drugs.

Slavery which “was widespread and socially accepted – scandalously including in the Christian world because it was big business” – eventually was abolished through long-term and dedicated efforts by both Christians and people of no religious faith who worked together to fight for human dignity, he said.
“Unfortunately, in a global economic system dominated by profit, new forms of slavery have developed and in some ways they are worse and more inhumane that that of the past”, the Pope said. “We are called to denounce and combat them”.

Every citizen of every country must be made aware of human trafficking and join the fight against it, he said.

Special action is needed to encourage countries to enact legislation to bring traffickers to justice and to use “their unjust earnings for the rehabilitation of victims”.

Nations also must be encouraged to grant asylum to the migrants who have fallen prey to the traffickers and ended up in their nations he said.