USF4FREEDOM: Refugees and Anti-Human Trafficking

The graduate students of the Nonprofit Administration (MNA) and Public Administration (MPA) programs at University of San Francisco's School of Management participated in an Academic Global Immersion Program (AGI) in Rome, Italy. They engaged with Jesuit Refugee Service (JRS), and other nonprofits and nongovernmental organizations to learn challenges and solutions to forced migration and human trafficking. Read more HERE. They also helped to organize The 2015 Symposium USF for Freedom at University of San Francisco, see https://www.usf4freedom.org/

The vent featured speakers from JRS and other Bay Area organizations actively engaged in in combating human trafficking. The event is co-sponsored by Not for Sale (NFS) and the World Engagement Institute (WEI). We are also in dialogue with the United Nations Association (UNA-SF) and the UN refugee agency (UNHCR) to make this event part of the 70th anniversary of the UN Charter which was signed here in San Francisco.

Marco Tavanti's Welcoming remarks

Welcome to the 2015 USF for Freedom Symposium on Forced Migration and Anti-Human Trafficking.

Last January students from the Nonprofit and Public Administration Graduate program spent a week in Rome to learn about the struggle of modern-day slavery and forced migration from Jesuit Refugee Service representatives. They were also quite touched when they heard the personal story of Mohammed a young Afghan minor who escaped war, followed smugglers and escaped from traffickers to finally arrive at Centro Astalli, the Jesuit run refugee service site which Pope Francis visited right after his election. As part of our AGI-Rome wrap up session, students asked, “Wouldn’t it be great to have a conference where we can speak about our experience using the JRS model of accompaniment and advocacy with Bay Areas nonprofits and other organizations promoting human dignity of forced migration victims and human slavery? The students have been working on this symposium since our trip in order to bring together what they learned and share it with you here in San Francisco and at USF as another way to “change the world from here”.

According to the UN refugee agency (UNHCR), there are more than 51 million people who are forcibly displaced today. Only 16M of them are recognized as ‘refugees’ according to the 1951 International Convention while the rest are IDPs and asylum seekers.

There are about 20,000 people who have perished in the Mediterranean Sea attempting to reach Europe. Many of them were escaping the violence in Syria and the Middle East and 900 of them recently drowned last April. According to the UNODC and other conservative estimates, there are 21M victims of human trafficking. 55% are women and children; 5.5M are children; 53% are sexually exploited, 40% are exploited for their labor; and there are 63,000 cases of organ trafficking. According to the ILO forced labour in the private economy generates about US$ 150 billion in illegal profits per year. Domestic work, agriculture, construction, manufacturing and entertainment are among the sectors most affected by this.

So here we are in 2015 as we are celebrating the 70th anniversary of the United Nations, a concept which started here in San Francisco. Unfortunately, the struggle of force migrant victims has been escalating since our visit to Rome. The UN agencies for refugees and anti-forced labor and human trafficking are doing a tremendous work to provide human dignity and emergency response to the many needs created by conflicts, climate change, and extreme poverty.

The Jesuit Refugee Service was established in 1980 by Superior General Fr. Pedro Arrupe largely in response to the plight of Vietnamese boat people. And the same crisis is repeated again today in South East Asia with the boat people from Burma and Bangladesh who cannot find asylum in Malaysia and Thailand while there is a crack down on human trafficking in the area. The topics of this symposium connect forced migrations with human trafficking and Jesuit values in the context of Bay Area organizations responding to this crisis appears to be more urgent than ever. We look forward to a productive and reflective time together today.

We are grateful to the Jesuit Foundation for its support of this event and to the co-sponsoring and represented organizations and agencies including Jesuit Refugee Service, The City of San Francisco, the United Nations Association of SF, Not for Sale, and the Bay Area Anti-Trafficking Coalition among others.