Pope Francis called for a global mobilisation to combat human trafficking and slavery yesterday, appealing to consumers to shun goods that may have been produced by exploited workers.

In his message for the Roman Catholic Church’s World Day of Peace which is held on January 1, the Pope denounced the “general indifference” that allows such practices to flourish.

“We are facing a global phenomenon which exceeds the competence of any one community or country.

“In order to eliminate it, we need a mobilisation comparable in size to that of the phenomenon itself,” he said in the message sent to heads of state and government, international institutions and religious leaders.

The Argentine Pope has made defence of migrants and workers a central issue of his papacy.

He has attacked the global economic system for failing to share wealth.

I ask consumers to shun goods produced by exploited workers

While he has told governments and institutions to do more to stop human trafficking and modern slavery, this time he emphasised individual social responsibility.

“Every person ought to have the awareness that purchasing is always a moral and not simply an economic act,” he said in his six-page message, titled “No longer slaves, but brothers and sisters”.

He called on individuals and communities to “feel challenged ... when we are tempted to select items which may well have been produced by exploiting others.”

The second global slavery index released last month by the Walk Free Foundation, an Australia-based human rights group, estimated that almost 36 million people were living as slaves, trafficked into brothels, forced into manual labour, victims of debt bondage or born into servitude.

In his message, Pope Francis denounced “the growing scourge of man’s exploitation by man” and said governments must do more to combat organised crime groups responsible for human trafficking.