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Christians Fight Modern Slavery in Pakistan

Two Christian groups in Pakistan -- Human Rights Focus Pakistan (HRFP) and Global Human Rights Defense (GHRD) -- have joined hands in a campaign to fight modern slavery which they say is rampart in their country, reports Dan Wooding, Founder of ASSIST Ministries.

“HRFP, as a partner of GHRD, is striving to protect and restore human and legal rights of those who are badly affected by various forms of modern slavery especially human trafficking and bonded labor,” said Zohaib Newton, Program Coordinator, Human Rights Focus Pakistan.

Mr. Newtold told the ASSIST News Service that recently, the two groups joined together to organize a "Fight Modern Slavery" rally on September 16, 2011.

At the event, Christian protestors took the streets by the press club in Faisalabad to register their opposition to what is going on in Pakistan.

“The protest was against bonded labor and human trafficking which are recognized as the most popular and profitable offenses in the crime industry and are also human rights violations,” said Newton. “It was also to highlight the human rights of both women and children in our society.

“The preliminary objective of the rally was to create awareness among the general public about these problems, but another motive of this rally was to raise the sensitivity of these issue and the problems of the affected victims to the policy makers of Government.

Mr. Naveed Walter, President of HRFP, Mr. George Clement, former Member of the National Assembly and Parliamentary Secretary of Foreign Affairs, as well as and Dr. Johnson (Social Activist) were the main speakers of this event.

There were more than 200 participants in the rally who were from different walks of life, including some victims with the families, who carried slogans like, “Stop Human Trafficking,” “Stop Bonded Labor,” “Stop Child labor,” “Restore Human Rights,” “Restore Minorities Rights,” and “All Human Beings are equal”.

Newton said, “The most moving part of the rally was when the two victims of modern slavery, a female named as Ms. Zubeida, and a male named as Mr. Younas, shared their life-changing experience with the general public. Ms.Zubeida told that she was a victim of bonded labor and slavery and her labor was demanded as a means of repayment for a loan taken by her father and that she was tricked and trapped into working for very little or no pay, often for seven days a week.

“She said the value of her work, according to her experience, was invariably greater than the original sum of money borrowed by her father.

“Likewise, Mr. Younas, another victim of human trafficking also shared his story and he told that he was deceived by one of his relatives in the desire to get settled abroad.”

Naveed Walter said, “Modern slavery is a serious threat to the dignity and respect of humanity. We at HFRP will continue to strive for a society which will be free of slavery, trafficking, bonded labor and other severe forms of misuse against other human being.

“I believe that that the Government should play a positive and constructive role to combat the infection of slavery from the roots of our culture.”

Mr. George Clement said that it was “very shameful” for all that in the world of globalization, information technology and sciences, how especially women and small girls and boys are “trapped in the black clouds of modern slavery.”

He went on to say, “These slaves are often treated brutally by their owners, and each and every decision in their lives are decided by their owners. In fact, these men become their Godfathers. We condemn this situation and demand that it be eliminated from our society.”

Dr. Johnson also condemned all of these acts and said that the time had now come “when we should and must take definite steps to discourage and depreciate these illegal acts of slavery.”

Mr. Newton said, “On September 20, 2011, an awareness activity was organized at CHESS Center, Faisalabad, where a documentary film was screened. The documentary film related the true story of two innocent girls who become the victims of human trafficking and bonded labor through the plan of their closed relatives.

“One was just 9 years of age when she became the victim of trafficking. She was trapped by his uncle who had said that he would arrange a respectful job for her but unfortunately was thrown in the field of sex industry by him. She told in the film that she tried to get out of the brothel several times but always failed because the guards caught her and beat her so brutally that she never tried again to run away.

“The second girl had a similar story saying that she got trafficked at the age of 12 years. She said that she was forced to become prostitute and when she refused to do that; she was also beaten inhumanly.

“The story of both girls was very heart-touching and were putting question in the minds of participants about why these incidents took place with innocent girls and children?”

At the end of the screening, Naveed Walter thanked all the participants and Resource Person for their active participation and said that both HRFP and GHRD will continue fighting against modern slavery and will make our society free from all forms of slavery and human rights violations.”

He thanked specially to GHRD for funding the both activities of the Fight Modern Slavery campaign.

The website for Human Rights Focus Pakistan can be found at: www.hrfngo.org

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TAGS: Pakistan Christian groups Human Rights Focus Pakistan Global Human Rights Defense modern slavery campaign

[09/26/2011]

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