Pray for an End to Human Trafficking
This prayer guide marks World Day Against Trafficking in Persons, which takes place every year on 30 July, but it can be used all year round. You can use it to inform your own private prayer, or as the basis for praying together as a group around themes and topics relating to human trafficking and slavery.
Please note that this prayer guide contains facts and information relating to human trafficking and slavery that are shocking and uncomfortable. If using this in a group context, please be aware that different experiences and contexts may mean this material could be troubling or difficult for individuals.
Today, human trafficking and slavery are illegal in almost all the nations of the world – but they continue to happen. In fact, it’s estimated that around 50 million people are currently trapped in some form of modern slavery around the world (1).
How do we pray for such an overwhelming crisis? In this guide, we’ll go through a few areas to focus your prayers.
Along with ways to pray now, we’ve also given you a few ideas for how to continue to pray for this issue in your daily life. Let’s be persistent in prayer to see an end to this global crisis.
Get informed
Before you start praying, let’s get a snapshot of the situation. Human trafficking is a hidden crime, so it’s difficult to get exact figures, but experts estimate that:
Human trafficking happens all over the world – no nation is exempt.
Of the 50 million people being trafficked today, a significant proportion (anywhere from 17 to 22 million) are women and girls trapped in forced marriage.(2)
The rest are trapped in commercial sexual exploitation, in brothels and online, as well as in forced labour across many industries.
The revenue generated by human trafficking is around $150 billion every single year, and more than 60% of that comes from sexual exploitation. (3)
Around 12% of people forced into modern slavery are children. (4)
These are sobering statistics. As you read them, allow the Holy Spirit to bring your emotions to the surface. You may feel anger, grief, or shock – invite God to be with you in these feelings, and ask Him to share His heart with you.
Pray for people
We want to see God intervene in the lives of people affected by human trafficking, and we want Him to bring lasting change to their situations.
Pray for survivors
For those who are trapped in slavery, pray:
For revelation: that the truth of their situation is brought to light. Pray that they can make contact with people who are in a position to help them.
For justice: that the crimes being committed against them are stopped, and that they come into freedom.
For reunion: that the families and communities that have been separated by trafficking will be reunited and restored.
For recovery: that they receive the help and support they need to fully restore their lives – that they can move into mental, physical, and emotional wholeness, social and economic security, and a place to thrive.
Pray for perpetrators
For those who are active or complicit in trafficking other people, pray:
For repentance: that they come to see their actions for what they are and make huge decisions to stop what they are doing. Even pray that God convicts people to the extent that they go to authorities and report their whole operations.
For restoration: many perpetrators become complicit because of their own histories of abuse, poverty, and desperation. While their actions must be condemned and stopped, pray that God works in their hearts and their lives to bring them into healing and health.
For exposure: that traffickers and trafficking operations are exposed and brought to light, so that justice can be done.
Keep praying
Set an alarm on your phone for the same time every day this week. Each time the alarm goes off, take a moment to pray for the survivors and perpetrators of human trafficking. The prayer points you just read can be summarised as ‘R&R’: pray that God would reveal trafficking and restore everyone involved in it.
Pray for circumstances
Traffickers prey upon people who are vulnerable. They often target refugees and people who have been displaced from their homes, those in extreme poverty, immigrants and minorities who may not yet know how to navigate in their new nations, communities where law enforcement is absent or corrupt, and children without caregivers.
Take some time to pray that God changes the circumstances that enable trafficking:
That the rights of vulnerable workers, especially immigrants, are upheld and protected.
That the emergency responses in the wake of wars and natural disasters protect the vulnerable.
That the demand for sexual exploitation ends.
That investigative tools become so advanced and widespread that it is impossible to launder money or make illegal transactions.
That the poverty that leaves people exposed to exploitation and fraud is eradicated.
Keep praying
Use the news as a prompt to pray. Whenever you see a headline about any of the issues that make people more vulnerable to trafficking – immigration, natural disaster, homelessness, for example – take a moment to pause and pray that everyone affected would be protected from human trafficking.
Pray for those in power
In the fight to end trafficking, there two areas of power that we’ll be praying into: legal power and economic power.
Legal power
National governments have the legal power to enforce the laws against trafficking. This looks like legislating against it, investigating and arresting traffickers, and prosecuting wrongdoers. Everyone, no matter where they live, should be able to trust that their authorities will protect them against exploitation, so let’s pray for:
Adequate resources to go towards anti-trafficking action, so that local authorities are trained and ready to investigate it and stop it from happening.
Lawmakers who continue to be passionate about this issue, drawing attention to it and creating change.
Successful legal convictions against traffickers.
An end to corruption among the governments and law enforcement around the world.
Not all governments are using their legal power to end trafficking. There are around 4 million people in state-mandated forced labour in various nations. (5) Pray that God changes the unjust systems that make this possible.
Economic power
Large corporations have economic power to affect the world. Many businesses have complicated supply chains – a piece of clothing, for example, may have fibres grown in several different places before being woven into cloth in another place, being dyed somewhere else, and then being sewn into a garment in a factory in yet another nation – all before it ends up in a shop. Each place and stage of production is an opportunity for exploitation.
Forced labour happens in factories, farms, fishing boats and more. Companies have a responsibility to make sure that they are not inadvertently hiring or buying from people who are exploiting others. Trafficking happens because it is profitable – let’s pray for a world where that’s no longer true. Pray that:
All global organisations take responsibility for their supply chains.
Labour practices are improved in factories around the world.
Strong enforcement keeps businesses accountable for their practices.
Culture begins to value fairness above profit.
Keep praying
This week, as you shop for groceries, take a moment to read the labels and see where things where grown or made. Choose two or three things in your shopping basket and pray for the government in the nations they came from.
Remember
In Luke 4, Jesus describes what God has sent him to do:
God is committed to bringing freedom. He is at work around the world, empowering His people to fight injustice, bring down corrupt systems, and offer help and healing to the hurt. Human trafficking and modern slavery is a huge issue, but He is even bigger.
As you bring your time of prayer to an end, spend some time praising God and giving this issue back into His hands.
References
(1) Global Slavery Index 2022, https://www.walkfree.org/reports/global-estimates-of-modern-slavery-2022/
(2) Global Slavery Index 2022, https://www.walkfree.org/reports/global-estimates-of-modern-slavery-2022/
(3) Profits and Poverty: The Economics of Forced Labour, report by the International Labour Organization, https://www.ilo.org/global/about-the-ilo/newsroom/news/WCMS_243201/lang–en/index.htm
(4) ‘Forced Labour, Modern Slavery and Human Trafficking’, The International Labour Organization, https://www.ilo.org/global/topics/forced-labour/lang–en/index.htm#:~:text=12%25%20of%20all%20those%20in,are%20in%20commercial%20sexual%20exploitation
(5) Global Slavery Index 2022, https://www.walkfree.org/reports/global-estimates-of-modern-slavery-2022/