Cardinal Vincent Nichols has taken part in a conference on human trafficking at the United Nations along with survivors of trafficking and top UN officials. The Archbishop of Westminster was expected to participate in a panel yesterday, alongside UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon, Kevin Hyland, the UK’s first independent anti-slavery commissioner, and American actress Mira Sorvino, a UN goodwill ambassador for the fight against trafficking. Ms Sorvino won a Golden Globe nomination for her role in the film Human Trafficking. Cardinal Nichols was in America all week promoting the work of the Santa Marta group, which was founded by Pope Francis in 2014 to strengthen the global response to human trafficking and modern slavery. The group is named after the Pope’s home in the Vatican. Pope Francis has described trafficking as “a crime against humanity” and “an open wound on the body of contemporary society”. He highlighted the subject in his address to the UN general assembly last year. Earlier this week Cardinal Nichols took part in meetings in Washington DC with the Department of Homeland Security and with senior officials from the State Department. He visited the McCain Institute, a charity run by former presidential candidate Senator John McCain and his wife Cindy. It has a major programme on human trafficking and is keen to engage with the Santa Marta Group. The cardinal also met Republican Senator Bob Corker, chairman of the Senate foreign relations committee, who is steering through the End Modern Slavery Initiative Act. The Santa Marta Group is an alliance of international police chiefs and bishops from around the world.