RP falls into Tier 2 Watch List of US State Department re Human Trafficking

RP falls into Tier 2 Watch List of US State Department re Human Trafficking

Jun 18

The US State Department has released its annual report on human trafficking and guess what? Our country is listed under Tier 2 and is now on the watch list. Previously, we were a Tier 2 country, but not in danger of falling further behind in global efforts to curb trafficking of persons.

Why am I not surprised?

1. Revisit our case vs notorious Singaporean trafficker, “Alfred Lim”. His cohorts in the Philippines remain at large though formal complaints have been filed with the NBI and CIDG since last year.

2. Due to failure to notify the Ople Center, we were unable to bring two trafficking victims to Malaysia to attend a court hearing on the Lim case. Alfred Lim is now out on bail, and four other victims of his have ran away and staying at the Filipino Workers’ Resource Center in Kuala Lumpur awaiting repatriation.

3. Per a report of the CIDG to Vice-President Noli de Castro, the law enforcement units have 29,000 outstanding warrants of arrest that have not been properly served against illegal recruiters/human traffickers.

4. Considering the length of time it takes for a complaint to blossom into an actual court case, the trafficked victim is often vulnerable to harassment and threats. There is no cohesive, well-funded, and comprehensive support system for victims of trafficking and illegal recruitment.

5. What is more distressing is that licensed recruitment agencies are now becoming a part of the trafficking network by lending their legal status to unscrupulous agents and employers who exploit our workers as slaves. The problem concerning “repro” or reprocessing of job orders have made it easier for syndicates to get a hold of our workers overseas, and sell their contracts knowing that these are flawed to start with.

The Inter-Agency Council Against Human Trafficking does not have a regular appropriation. The Task Force against Human Trafficking lodged with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas is manned by only four people.

Overseas, the mindset of our diplomatic corps is repatriation, not legal justice. A trafficked victim is lumped with other welfare and labor cases awaiting plane tickets home, rather than a modern-day slave whose rights can be defended anywhere in the world, just as in any human rights case.

Much is to be done if we are to improve our standing in the world community as a country that convicts human traffickers.

Since the Anti-Trafficking Law was passed in 2003, we have had only 13 convictions.

Think of it — 29,000 outstanding warrants of arrest, 13 convictions under a 6-year old law, and thousands of trafficked Filipino victims every year.

The Philippines is included in the Tier 2 Watch List along with United Arab Emirates, Qatar, Angola, Iraq, Bangladesh and Cambodia.

As I’ve said — based on our own experience as an NGO helping trafficked victims — I am not surprised.