Antonia Murphy who opened The Bach, in Whangarei, four months ago asked if it was morally better to sell 40-plus hours a week of your time at a tedious job, to earn the same money you can make in three hours doing sex work. Continue reading

The call comes from Sr Sharmi D'Souza, a member of the Sisters of Mary Immaculate, who says the nuns will be more effective supported by their pastors.

As well as the lack of priests, the nuns are also disappointed that some Indian police refuse to go with them because they've been bribed by traffickers.

Confirming the nuns never go alone, Sr Shami said when local police won't help, the resourceful nuns go further up the police chain of command to get help.

"In one night, we saved 37 girls," she said, adding 10 were minors.

Sr Sharmi told CNS that they've snatched girls as young as 12 from the clutches of their captors.

After rescuing the girls and young women, the sisters take them to safety and offer them support and assistance.

The nun, who with a number of other religious women attended the event at which Pope Francis urged everyone to fight modern forms of slavery, is pleased that in four years the nuns have also helped put 30 traffickers in jail.

The ongoing call to get more priests and men religious active in the fight against trafficking was reiterated by the only priest in the audience, not part of the Pontifical Council for Justice and Peace.

"The presence of such dedicated women religious is extraordinary.

"The absence of priests and male religious (at the news conference) is even more noticeable," said Fr Jeffrey Bayhi, pastor of St John the Baptist and Our Lady of the Assumption churches in Zachary, Louisiana.

While women religious are on the streets helping victims, priests need to take advantage of "the pulpit" to speak out against human exploitation, he said.

"Life is seen only as something for profit, pleasure or possession. Unless we address that societal ill that is worldwide", he said, adding, the "snakes" will never be wiped out "as long as there is a market for venom."

February 8 is the feast of St Josephine Bakhita and marks the International Day of Prayer and Awareness against Human Trafficking.

Sources

• CNS
• Vatican Radio
• Image: Persblog.be

A raid is about to take place on a brothel whose inhabitants, the police believe, include women who have been trafficked into Britain from eastern Europe.

The nun is an integral part of the police operation.

It could be a storyline from a film, but there isn't a camera in sight.

This is real life, part of the UK's imaginative and innovative approach that has made it a frontrunner in the battle against human trafficking; and the scene explains why London will this week host the second meeting of the Santa Marta international consortium to stop the trade.

Home secretary Theresa May, Metropolitan police commissioner Sir Bernard Hogan-Howe and Cardinal Vincent Nichols will join police chiefs, victims' organisations, ambassadors and church leaders from 27 countries for the conference, taking place at Lancaster House on Friday and Saturday.

It is likely to be followed by announcements next weekend of projects aimed both at more effective policing and education campaigns to raise public awareness of trafficking.

On Saturday the Home Office said therecould be as many as 13,000 slavery victims in the UK.

"It's a terrible crime that wrecks people's lives, and it goes on in the midst of ordinary life - on ordinary streets in cities and towns across Britain - yet many people know nothing about it," said Kevin Hyland, newly appointed as the country's anti-slavery commissioner, who will play a leading role at the conference.

"We need to tell people what they need to look out for, the signs that someone might be being coerced into living a life they don't want to lead, so that they can help in the fight against trafficking." Continue reading

Article and Image:

• The Guardian
• See also: articles in The Sydney Morning Herald and Catholic Herald

John Chow said a bruising liquor licensing battle had exhausted the brothers' patience.

"I think with the new liquor licence and the law change, we will be looking to reconsider our project opposite SkyCity," he said. "We need to balance the risks and make a commercial decision. The project had been dragging on for some time, and sometimes you lose your mojo." continue reading

One central city brothel, One33 Vincent, believes that the approval for a 15 storey 'sex hotel' is positive and they don't believe they will lose clients as a result.

Manager of One33 Vincent, Jacky, says other publicly functioning brothels aren't a threat.

Continue reading

A public hearing is taking place as part of the Auckland City Council consent process. The brothel is being built by Wellington brothers, John and Michael Chow in Victoria St, opposite the Sky Tower.

Heather Harris, Auckland Council's resource consents manager, said, "The proposal is for a building of 15 storeys, including a basement. The building will contain restaurants, bars, nightclubs, a brothel occupying 1.5 storeys, hotel and offices."

The council publicly notified the Chows' application for the huge new brothel because of what it deemed special circumstances. That resulted in 221 submissions being made, of which only one was in conditional support.

The Chows' planner, Green Group's Martin Green, is arguing strongly for the tower to be allowed because it mostly complies. The only major aspect which is non-complying is the short-stay accommodation, a discretionary activity on that site, therefore up to the council to make a call.

Monsignor David Tonks, pastoral assistant to Catholic Bishop Patrick Dunn, warned in his submission that the building could increase crime in the area, particularly murders. He believes that new brothels should be limited to existing red light areas such as Karangahape Rd and Fort St.

Monsignor Tonks said the building's height indicated a quantity of commercial sex intended far in excess of any other Auckland brothels.

"The proposed brothel would encourage the expansion of the sex industry, which I believe is not in accord with the intentions of the Prostitute Reform Act," which, he said, aimed to decriminalise prostitution, and to create a framework that safeguards the human rights of sex workers and prohibits them from exploitation and promotes the welfare, occupational health and safety of sex workers.

"Few parents would encourage their children to sell or buy sex, because they consider such activity humanly demeaning. They would, therefore, prefer places where sex is sold to be restricted to less prominent areas than Victoria St. Aucklanders are proud to show visitors the Sky Tower. Most would consider an adjacent brothel to say the wrong things about the values we hold dear," he said in his submission.

But Auckland Council lead senior planner Jennifer Valentine said because activities within the tower were permitted, she could not consider "moral or religious objections, nor potential increases in illegal activities such as crime and drug use".

Bishop Dunn says it is ironical that only recently the childcare centre in the ANZ Centre, a short distance from the proposed new brothel, was demolished, in order to allow significant redevelopment of the site, bringing considerable inconvenience to families living in the central city area. "We see that financial advantage clearly outweighs the public good in decisions made by property developers and by our city fathers whose responsibility it is to promote the wellbeing of our citizens," the bishop said.

More: New Zealand Herald

Auckland Catholic Diocese

The Aucklander

Photo: Stuff

This follows a decision by Auckland Council's hearings committee to rescind its December decision to have an independent commissioner decide whether the public should have a say.

Opponents include Auckland's Bishop Pat Dunn.

Other city councils including Christchurch are expected to show interest and may seek to have the same powers applied generally.

An earlier 2005 bill, relating to Manukau City Council, was voted down in 2006 after it emerged from strongly divided select committee hearings.

The 2003 Prostitution Reform Act decriminalised the sex industry in an attempt to make it safer for participants, while also awarding greater control of the trade to local councils.

The Act gave local bodies power to regulate the location of brothels in the interests of the community but gave them no control over where street workers could solicit, no matter how much opposition there was on the part of the local community.

Source

• New Zealand Herald
• Image: Briarpatch