Geelong, Australia
The film Sound of Freedom been making headlines throughout the US summer – both for its surprise success at the box office but also for the swirl of controversy surrounding it concerning everything from the views of its star Jim Caviezil and conspiracy theories to Donald Trump’s support of the film and even the way it depicts the issue of human trafficking.
Yet, despite the baggage it comes with, Paul Mergard – CEO of the anti-human trafficking organisation Destiny Rescue Australia – says the film has been a significant help in raising awareness of the issue of human trafficking.
“The way I look at it is that, for me…anything which is raising awareness of the issue of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation is important,” he told Sight. “And I think this movie has done it in a way that probably nothing else has in the past couple of decades.”
A scene from the film Sound of Freedom which starts Jim Caviezil as Tim Ballard.
The film, which opens in Australia this week, tells the story of Tim Ballard, a former US Homeland security agent on a mission to rescue children from sexual slavery. Ballard was one of the founders of US-based organisation Operation Underground Railroad.
The film, directed by Alejandro Monteverde, was released in the US in early July by Angel Studios, those behind the smash-hit series depicting the life of Jesus Christ, The Chosen, and has reportedly grossed more than $US177 million.
Destiny Rescue, which was founded on the Sunshine Coast in 2001, works in 12 countries around the world in Asia, Latin America and Africa and says it’s rescued more than 13,000 individuals from human trafficking and child exploitation. The organisation also works with survivors of human trafficking to rebuild their lives.
Mergard, who saw Sound of Freedom when in the US back in July, said that while the film is based on a true story, “it is a Hollywood depiction of what happened”.
“It’s not a documentary, I guess,” he says. “But it’s quite a powerful story that tells the story of a whole lot of kids being rescued [who] have been trafficked.”
Some of the criticisms made of the way in which the film has depicted the issue of human trafficking include that it portrays children being snatched off the street by strangers when, it’s argued, the majority of child trafficking victims know and trust their traffickers as well as its focus on very young children when most children who are trafficked are adolescents or teenagers.
Mergard said that, with more than a million children trafficked into the sex trade around the world annually, the film just represents “one story”.
“It’s one story out of a million that are told every year…” he said. “But I would agree with most of those comments – we would find that most the children we would rescue, they’ve been manipulated, they’ve been coerced, they’ve been groomed [by] someone close to them. Sometimes it’s a family member, sometimes it’s out of sheer desperation.”
He added that the film’s portrayal of children being snatched off the street doesn’t represent the majority of cases the organisation sees and that the movie depicts just one form of rescue.
“Destiny Rescue works in quite a number of different ways – we do border rescues…we do work with police, we do work in really poor communities where children are being trafficked…or exploited in a slum community just to put food on the table. So our work – a lot of it is quite different to what’s being portrayed in the movie.”
Destiny Rescue CEO Paul Mergard. PICTURE: Courtesy of Destiny Rescue
Mergard said contribution the film is making to raising awareness of the issues of human trafficking and child sexual exploitation – including child sex tourism and online child exploitation – around the world is significant.
“There is a real lack of awareness of [the issue],” he says. He adds that to help address that lack Destiny Rescue is currently calling on the Australian Government to fund an awareness campaign targeting outbound tourists, particularly those heading to nations in South-East Asia known for being places where children are being exploited.
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Mergard said that for people who do want to engage further with the issue, they can become a “rescue partner” with Destiny Rescue and help fund the organisation’s work.
“We rescue on average 16 individuals every day [and] it costs, on average, $A1,800, to rescue a child,” he said.
He also encourages people to take a look at information about the issue of human trafficking on Destiny Rescue’s website.
“I’d encourage people to get fully informed about the issue…” he said. “The more people can be made aware of what is actually happening around the world, the more we can change the world for kids and make the world a safer place for kids.”
