The
Philippines and Indonesia have agreed to strengthen efforts to crack down on
human trafficking, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) has announced. Immigration
Commissioner Siegfried Mison said in a statement that a delegation from
Indonesia had visited the Philippines recently and met with him. The two countries
agreed that stronger cooperation was needed to address the serious plight of
refugees and asylum seekers of other nationalities entering their borders.
During the meeting, Mison also emphasized the need for tighter measures since
detecting human trafficking victims can pose to be a challenge, taking into
consideration the large volume of those who pass through the ports each year.
Authorities from Indonesia noted that most victims of human trafficking are
Filipinos who desperately want to work abroad and will use tourist visas
falsified by syndicates. In a number of cases, women and children become
vulnerable to human trafficking and end up prostituted in other countries, a
problem intended to be eliminated by Republic Act No. 9208 (Anti-Trafficking in
Persons Act 2003) and RA 10364 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act.
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