Dozens of Roman Catholic bishops in South America say human trafficking has seen alarming growth in the region The 60 bishops from Argentina Brazil Paraguay and Uruguay issued a statement after a meeting in Argentina last week calling the practice a shameful and outrageous reality and pledging to do more to fight itWe warn of the existence of organized mafias that use smaller networks that are present in nearly all of our cities and towns the statement said Learn more at The CNN Freedom Project Citing reports from global nonprofit groups the bishops noted that child sex trafficking rings were also operating in the area The bishops pledged to raise awareness of the problem push for legal reforms and assist victims  noting that within the church there had been an absence of proposals dedicated to attracting young people LRB to the church RRB and the absence of a more decisive and broad response to the problem LRB of human trafficking RRBSuch an approach is not surprising said Sergio Rubin a journalist who has written extensively about the Catholic Church in ArgentinaThe church is assuming its role and they believe that they must work a lot more in the formation of religious values Rubin said Mario Ganora a lawyer who works with La Alameda an Argentinian nonprofit that helps victims of human trafficking said the increase in human trafficking was connected to an increase in drug consumptionHow  The women who are used for sex trafficking are also used for the delivery of drugs he said According to official data from Argentinas Ministry of Justice and Human Rights 176 people were rescued from human trafficking networks in Argentina in April a higher number than the entire previous trimester 