Trafficking in the Philippines

The U.S Department of State placed the Philippines in the Tier 2 rank in its “2012 Trafficking in Persons Report.” The different placements are based more on the government action taken to combat human trafficking rather than on the size of the problem in any given country. A Tier 2 rank is given to

        “Countries where governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards, but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards, and whose:
 

a) the absolute number of victims of severe forms of trafficking is very significant or is significantly increasing;

b) there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons from the previous year, including increased investigations, prosecution, and convictions of trafficking crimes, increased assistance to victims, and decreasing evidence of complicity in severe forms of trafficking by government officials; or

c) the determination that a country is making significant efforts to bring itself into compliance with minimum standards was based on commitments by the country to take additional steps over the next year.” [1]

The Philippines is considered a source country and to a much lesser extent, a destination and transit country for men, women and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor. A significant amount of Filipinos who migrate abroad for work find themselves in situations wherein they are subjected to involuntary servitude. They are forced to work in places such as factories, construction sites, fishing vessels, and agricultural plantations and as domestic workers in Asia and increasingly throughout the Middle East. Those in domestic service in foreign countries face rape, physical violence and sexual abuse. Filipinas are subjected to sex trafficking in countries such as Malaysia, Singapore, Hong Kong, Republic of Korea, Japan and various Middle Eastern countries. For example, from January – March 2012 the government repatriated 514 domestic workers from Syria; over 90 percent of them were identified as trafficking victims. [2]

Trafficking of men, women and children within the country also remains a problem. People are trafficked from rural areas to urban centers such as Manila, Cebu and increasingly cities across Mindanao. Traffickers usually work hand in hand with organized crime syndicates and corrupt law enforcement officers to recruit family and friends from villages and urban neighborhoods, often masquerading as representatives of government-registered employment agencies. Fraudulent recruitment practices and the practice of paying recruitment fees often lead workers feeling vulnerable to forced labor, debt bondage and commercial sexual exploitation [3]

Recently, the government has increased its efforts to protect trafficking victims. In 2011, the government increased its budget allocation to the Assistance-to-Nationals program administered by the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), to the equivalent of $9.86 million to assist Filipinos in distress overseas, including trafficking. The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and the DFA have coordinated with NGO’s in other countries to provide temporary shelter, counseling and medical assistance to 1,469 victims of trafficking and illegal recruitment abroad. [4]

Measures to prevent trafficking have also been undertaken in the Philippines. These efforts include the Philippine Oversees Employment Agency (POEA) conducting 1,539 pre-deployment orientation seminars for over 100,000 prospective and outbound Filipino overseas workers. In 2011, the POEA opened a community center to offer legal assistance to trafficking victims in partnership with civil society representatives and a labor assistance center to identify possible victims of trafficking. The labor assistance center later named 101 suspected victims and prevented them from departing on account of suspected exploitation. [5]

For more information, please visit:
http://edition.cnn.com/2013/05/08/world/asia/freedom-fighters-stats
http://www.state.gov/j/tip/rls/tiprpt/2012/



 
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[1] U.S Department of State, 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Taken from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192587.pdf, page 40.
[2]U.S Department of State, 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Taken from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192597.pdf, pp. 284-285.
[3] U.S Department of State, 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Taken from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192597.pdf, page 285.
[4] U.S Department of State, 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Taken from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192597.pdf, pp. 286-287.
[5] U.S Department of State, 2012 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report. Taken from http://www.state.gov/documents/organization/192597.pdf, page 287.