Pope condemns forced labour, prostitution as new forms of slavery

Catholic Pontiff, Pope Francis, has condemned what he termed “new forms of slavery” as the United Nations remembered the slave trade.

The pontiff made the condemnation on Tuesday in Vatican City as the World commemorated UN International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition.

Francis said that the new forms of slavery such as human and organ trafficking, forced labour, and prostitution, were true crimes against humanity.

Slave Trade and its Abolition day fall on Aug. 23 because on that day in 1791 a slave rebellion started in Haiti, leading to the abolition of slavery and the country’s independence from France in 1804.

Earlier this month, Francis made an unscheduled visit to a Catholic charity in Rome offering shelter to women rescued from the sex trade, where he met 20 former prostitutes.