|PIC1|A top Vatican official said yesterday that human trafficking, including the forced prostitution of women and forced labour of children, is worse now than the trade of African slaves in past centuries.

"This trafficking in human beings has intensified, persons put into slavery because they depend on certain criminals who take possession of these human beings," said Cardinal Renato Martino, former long-time Vatican envoy to the United Nations and current head of the Holy See's office concerned with migrant and itinerant peoples.

"It's worse than the slavery of those whose slaves who were taken from Africa and brought to other countries," Martino told a news conference to present Pope Benedict XVI's annual message dealing with the problems of migrants.

The Cardinal singled out modern day forms of slavery, which include minors who are sold to do child labour or who are forced to be soldiers, as well as women forced to become prostitutes. He challenged countries to combat these problems.

"In a world which proclaims human rights left and right, let's see what it does about the rights of so many human beings which are not respected, but trampled," the Cardinal said.

In the papal message, Pope Benedict noted that more women were leaving their homelands in search of a better life. "However, women who end up as victims of trafficking of human beings and of prostitution are not few," the Pope said.

In the last decade or so, many women in Eastern Europe have travelled to the West after being promised what appeared to be honest jobs, but upon arrival in the countries have been forced to work as prostitutes to pay off the cost of their trip.