Notices for Sunday 2nd August

The Word This Week

​

alitha Kum warns of ever-evolving challenge of human trafficking 

In 2025, the Talitha Kum anti-trafficking network reached over 1.2 million people through prevention, protection, survivor accompaniment, advocacy, formation and capacity-building initiatives. 

Human trafficking is evolving in increasingly complex ways, and the rapid expansion of online scam operations has become “one of the most urgent and alarming forms of exploitation”, the anti-trafficking network Talitha Kum has warned. 

Releasing its annual report for 2025, the network – led by women religious around the world – said an estimated 50 million people worldwide experience modern-day slavery, generating more than US$236 billion in criminal profits annually. 

The report highlights how thousands of young people have been deceived by false promises of employment, trafficked across borders, and forced into cyber-enabled criminal activities through violence and coercion. 

“Behind every number is a real person: a survivor regaining freedom, a young person leading change, a family finding hope, and a community choosing solidarity over indifference,” said Sr Abby Avelino MM, international coordinator of Talitha Kum. 

In 2025, women and girls continued to make up most victims and survivors. Most girl victims (60 per cent) are trafficked for sexual exploitation. 

The report reveals that 45 per cent of children are trafficked for forced labour while 47 per cent are exploited for other purposes such as forced crime. 

These figures demonstrate the strengthened commitment of consecrated life to the global mission of ending human trafficking, the report says. 

During 2025, members of the network had a meeting with Queen Camilla which “offered meaningful international recognition of the invaluable contribution of Catholic Sisters and affirmed the essential role of faith-based leadership in confronting one of the greatest human rights challenges of our time”.