The Good Shepherd Centre led by Sister Juliana Devoy and the Vital Voices Global Partnership held a one-day conference titled “Business Leadership to End Human Trafficking & Modern Day Slavery” at the MGM Macau on Tuesday. This conference brought together over 100 participants from Macau and abroad.
Conference speakers included Cheang Kam Va Advisor to Secretary Wong Sio Chak who said “The problem is vastly complex but we are trying our best to tackle this with all the parties involved” and Richard Welford Chairman of CSR Asia who said “I can walk outside their casinos and within 10 minutes, three girls would approach me offering commercial sex services. But when I talk to the casinos about the problem, they say it’s not their problem, that’s outside their casinos”. While praising Macau for the work done to tackle human trafficking, he added that he would like to see gaming operators take a more proactive approach.
The conference presented an international outlook to modern day slavery and also touched on the present Macau human trafficking situation highlighted by Cheang Kam Va, where it was mentioned that in 2014, only four cases of human trafficking were found.
There is an estimated 36 million slaves around the world, where 76% of them are involved in forced labour and 24% in the sex industry – 66% of these illicit activities occur in Asia.
The Good Shepherds Centre has continuously strived to provide safe homes for girls in Macau who have been trafficked from Mainland China. Sister Juliana quoted Mother Teresa in her opening speech of the conference emphasizing how we should work together to combat this problem: “I can do things you cannot, you can do things I cannot; together we can do great things.” (macaunews)
