A new global campaign has been launched this past week to raise awareness and halt the exploitation of women and young girls being sold into sex slavery. With Faithworks founder Rev Steve Chalke as its chair and Daniel Bedingfield also acting as a spokeperson, ‘Stop the Traffik’ has been formed to make big strides in tackling the issue.

|PIC1|Stop the Traffik is a broad alliance with founding members including the Bible Society, Christian Aid, CMS, the World Evangelical Alliance among many others. The new alliance has received endorsements from more than 250 MEP’s, Ian Duncan Smith, Francis Maude, Anita Roddick, Jim Wallis, Daniel Bedingfield and Tony Campolo. In addition the campaign is hoping to receive endorsements from Richard Branson, Bill and Hilary Clinton, Gordon Brown and Cheri Blair in the near future.

Sex slavery is now the third-largest money earner for criminals around the world, and although Stop the Traffik was just launched in the UK by Simon Coveney MEP, it is already working in a number of countries across the world.

Coveney said, “In the same way that the Make Poverty History campaign successfully raised the issue of debt relief, fair trade and development aid, I hope that Stop the Traffik will raise awareness about the trafficking in human beings and in particular forced child prostitution.”

It is estimated that up to 100,000 women are trafficked into Europe every year – being forced into the sex industry, and the organisation believes that people in the source as well as the receiving countries must be educated on the scale of the problem.

As a worldwide problem, literally up to a million people are trafficked across international borders each year due to the escalating problem.

|AD|It is also hoped that the alliance will help finance grassroots anti-trafficking projects across the globe, and a new drive has been launched by a number of organisations to tackle the problem during the football World Cup in Germany this summer.

Mr Coveney said, “People should know that if they pay for sex the person they hire may have been trafficked or forced into prostitution. We must concentrate on reducing the demand for prostitutes and in doing so decrease the numbers of primarily young girls being trafficked into the sex industry.

He added, “Human trafficking is a modern day form of slavery. It’s the third largest source of income for international organised crime, after trafficking in drugs and arms.”

The founding members of the alliance include: Alpha International, Amnesty, Asha Forum, Bible Society, Care, Care For The Family, CHASTE, Child Aid, Christian Aid, CMS, CRED, ESCAPE, Freeset Bags, Global Angels, Ignite, Justice For Children International, Lifeline, The Message Trust, NCAP, Oasis Trust, Pioneer Trust, Saltmine, Spring Harvest, Soul Action, Soul Survivor, Tearfund, Virgin Unite, Walden Media, The Women's Methodist Network, World Evangelical Alliance and World Vision.

The Stop the Traffik campaign will build up momentum for its drive to Freedom Day on March 25th, 2007.