The Santa Marta Group, endorsed by Pope Francis in 2014, is the Catholic Church’s response to human trafficking and modern slavery.
It is an alliance of international police chiefs and bishops from around the world working together with civil society to eradicate human trafficking and modern day slavery.
Cardinal Vincent Nichols is President of the Santa Marta Group.
The Santa Marta Group is an alliance of international police chiefs and bishops from around the world working together with civil society in a process endorsed by Pope Francis who called it “an open wound on the body of contemporary society”, to eradicate human trafficking and modern day slavery.
A few days before Anti-Slavery Day 2024, we held a webinar to reflect on how modern slavery and human trafficking touches UK society and how we can work to eliminate it from our communities.
The women, and men, who speak in these films have been ruthlessly exploited by criminals involved in human trafficking. They show great courage and bravery to give us a valuable insight into the damage caused by these violent, degrading crimes.
As the 'Combating Human Trafficking' conference drew to a close on Thursday, 10 April 2014, police chiefs from around the world made a declaration of commitment in the fight to bring an end to human trafficking.
Caritas Bakhita House is an essential part of the initiative. It is a ‘triage’ centre for the emergency placement of women escaping human trafficking and its function is to support the beginnings of the restorative process.
St Josephine Bakhita, also known as ‘Mother Moretta’ (our Black Mother) bore 144 physical scars throughout her life which were received after she was kidnapped at the age of nine and sold into slavery.
