At the young age of 12, a recruiter promised Ruby a good job in the city and she accepted it. This “good job” turned out to be one in a brothel, where she worked with no rest and no pay. Beatings from her employers were common. Rose was only 14 when she decided to work abroad to help her family. Living in a small village in the war-torn south, Rose did not have a lot of choices. Being a minor, her recruiter falsified her papers so that she could work in the Middle East. She stayed there for two years, but when her contract ended and she wanted to go home, her employer hid her passport and tried to sell her to another employer.
Speaking at the 2nd Wadah International Gathering, Cecila Flores-Oebanda, founder and president of NGO Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF), says, “Human trafficking is modern day slavery. Traffickers prey on the weak and the poor, luring them with false promises.”
The VFF assists trafficking victims like Rose and Ruby by providing housing, psychological counseling and alternative livelihood training.
Ruby and Rose are just two of the over 12 million adults and children who are victims of forced labor, sexual exploitation, bonded labor and forced prostitution. The 2006 Annual Poverty Indicators state a 30% poverty incidence among women. That's 12.8 million affected lives.
An estimated 1.2 million children are trafficked every year. Most of the victims are between the ages of 18 to 24 years and have received at least a middle level education
The $31.6 billion human trafficking industry is reported to have affected 161 countries by being a source, transit or destination country and is pegged as the third most profitable industry in the world after guns and drugs.
While there is no official data on the number of trafficked victims in the Philippines, the US State Department reports that there are about 800,000 Filipinos trafficked outside of the country every year.
RA 9208 or The Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law of 2003, defines human trafficking as “the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring or receipt of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge within or across national borders by means of threat or use of force, or other forms of coercion.”
The VFF records show that from 2003 to 2009, 938 trafficking cases were filed: 387 cases (41 percent) were filed in court under RA 9208 with 23 other for violation of related laws; 335 cases (36 percent) are pending resolution before the prosecutor’s office while 167 cases (18 percent) have been dismissed or dropped.
The Department of Justice's Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) estimates that as of July 2010, there have been only 18 convictions with 20 people convicted since the passing of the law in 2003.
In the 2010 US State Department Report, the Philippines was listed on the Tier 2 watchlist for the second consecutive year indicating that the Philippine government does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; specifically “the government’s ability to effectively prosecute trafficking crimes as severely limited by an inefficient judicial system” as one of the reasons for the grading.
Apart from that, the report states that that officials in government units and agencies assigned to enforce laws against human trafficking allowed trafficking offenders to conduct illegal activities, either tacitly or explicitly. Flores-Oebanda agrees, “Human trafficking involves a vast chain of people. It is not just the recruiter and the employer. You need officials to falsify documents and other personnel to allow the trafficked victims to get past airport checks.”
The US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000 (TVPA) requires any country ranked in the Tier 2 Watch List for two consecutive years be downgraded to Tier 3 on the third year, unless their ranking improves or the President waives application of the provision.
“The Philippines has been in the Tier 2 Watch List for the past two years, it faces a downgrade to Tier 3 in the 2011 Report,” warns Flores-Oebanda. If downgraded to Tier 3, the Philippines may be subjected to certain sanctions, to include withholding of all non-humanitarian, nontrade-related foreign assistance and elimination of educational and cultural exchange programs for government officials.
The VFF estimates that for the Philippines, this puts over $250 million in assistance at risk.
For the Philippines to avoid being further downgraded to Tier 3, it must:
- Demonstrate greater progress on efficiently investigating, prosecuting, and convicting both labor and sex trafficking offenders involved in the trafficking of Filipinos in the country and abroad.
- Increase efforts to vigorously investigate and prosecute government officials complicit in trafficking.
- Dedicate more resources and personnel to prosecuting trafficking cases.
- Devote increased resources to victim and witness protection, including for shelters.
- Increase efforts to engage governments of destination countries through law enforcement and diplomatic channels in the investigation and prosecution of trafficking offenders.
- Ensure the terms of Memorandums of Understanding (MOUs) with foreign countries hiring Filipino workers are met such that workers are adequately protected while abroad.
- Assess methods to measure and address domestic labor trafficking.
- And continue to disseminate information on the 2003 Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act throughout the country.
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The statistics and information cited in this article are based on a briefing paper prepared by the Visayan Forum Foundation. Sources include the Department of Justice Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), UN.Gift, the United States Department of State 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report and the United States Embassy in Manila.
But what can we do to help alleviate the situation? One of the most important aspects of this issue is awareness: although we may be aware that human trafficking exists, it's hard to imagine that it could be happening near or around us, to fellow Filipinas. But it does happen, and this is what the VFF and other foundations seek to make others understand. Spread the word by linking this article and others on the topic to friends, family, and other interested parties. Don't think it's enough? The Wadah foundation and others like it accept donations and volunteers--time and money are resources this cause can never have too much of.
(Photo courtesy of Flickr Creative Commons)
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