According to the
Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), Foreign Service Posts in the Middle East
and Africa reported the highest number of trafficked and smuggled Filipino
nationals in 2013. During a regional workshop for FSP’s in Ankara, Turkey, each
Embassy and Consulate General presented their host country’s problems with
human trafficking, which tackled the basics of Philippine and international
anti-human trafficking laws. No figures were reported by the DFA, but the
country has a Tier 2 ranking in the U.S. Department of State’s 2013 Trafficking
in Persons Report. “According to the State Department, a Tier 2 ranking is for
"[c]ountries whose governments do not fully comply with the [US
Trafficking Victims Protection Act's] minimum standards but are making
significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those
standards."” The report says that the Philippines continues to be a source
of forced labor and a site of commercial sexual exploitation. Though
convictions of both labor and sex trafficking of offenders has increased,
“inefficiencies in the judicial system” have significantly bogged down the
persecution of offenders.
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