Statistics of human trafficking throughout the world overwhelm my imagining. Reliable estimates put the figure at 30 million. These tragically unfortunate people have fallen victim to various forms of enforced degradation that violate their dignity and their human rights.

The United Nations defines trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harboring or receipt of persons by means of threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of abuse of power, or of a position of vulnerability or of giving or receiving payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.”

Most Americans remain unaware of this sobering reality of the modern world. Yet, Nicholas Kristof of the New York Times has written many columns graphically describing trafficking, especially that of girls and young women, and interviewing its victims. And one sees photos of young boys pressed into the military forces of various armed groups and forced to fight.

Such situations cry out for justice but trafficking, in appalling numbers, continues to plague many people whose lives suffer horrible violation. If we think the modern world has moved beyond such horrors, we ignore one of terrible realities of those who live in our global society but receive oppression from it.

Human trafficking confirms my pessimistic view of the world. However, my commitment to hope receives support from knowing about the many courageous people who work against this great evil.