The court sentenced three sex traffickers convicted under related cybercrime laws to varying terms of imprisonment: two months, two to four years, and 12 to 17 years with fines ranging from 50,000 to one million pesos ($990 to $19,750). 10364. Many believe that this large number stems from the Philippines’ low GDP per capita (the country ranks 118th out of 191 nations in this measure) and its high poverty rate of 21.6 percent. As a signatory to the “Protocol to Prevent, Suppress and Punish Trafficking in Persons, Especially Women and Children,” which supplemented the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime, the Philippines is actively engaged in combating human trafficking – an international problem that is an affront to the basic human rights of individuals worldwide. Human trafficking and child sexual abuse are still alive and thriving in the Philippines. Filipino men also purchase commercial sex acts from child trafficking victims. The traffickers are often parents or close relatives who operate in private residences or small cyber cafes and many child victims, girls and boys, are younger than 12 years. The Government of the Philippines fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking. Trafficked individuals often have to do manual labor, become sex slaves or perform domestic servitude. The government continued to partner with NGOs for specialized residential care and reintegration services for child victims of online sexual exploitation as well as training for local social workers who provide reintegration and trauma-focused counseling. DFA allocated one billion pesos ($19.75 million) for the Assistance to Nationals Fund (ATN), which covered assistance such as airfare, meal allowance, shelter, medical care, and other needs of OFWs. The Philippines’ Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 provides the legal framework for the criminalization of human trafficking in the Philippines. 9208 is … In June, the State Departement’s Trafficking in Persons Report listed the Philippines among the top-tier countries with laws in place to battle human trafficking. They strictly monitor the borderlines to prevent the traffickers from recruiting more victims. PH retains Tier 1 status in US anti-trafficking standards. AN ACT EXPANDING REPUBLIC ACT NO. The Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE) overseas labor officers continued to review overseas Filipino workers’ (OFW) labor contracts and assist them with labor contract violations and allegations of abuse. Online sexual abuse of children is everywhere, it seems, and more must be done by the telecommunication corporations to stop it. 1). (212) 419-8286 The organization provides residential care, community-based programs, medical and psychological support, education, and vocational training to human trafficking survivors. The BI-TCEU continued to screen departing passengers and deferred the departure of 31,211 passengers (24,753 in 2018) due to incomplete or suspicious travel documents or misrepresentation. Voice of the Free was established in 1991 with the aim of addressing human trafficking in The Philippines. As reported over the past five years, human traffickers exploit domestic and foreign victims in the Philippines, and traffickers exploit victims from the Philippines abroad. Identified hotspots for this form of sex trafficking in Luzon and Visayas include Iligan, Lapu-Lapu, Pampanga, Quezon City, Malabon, Pasig, Taguig, and Caloocan. Traffickers exploit Filipinos already working overseas through fraudulent employment offers to work in another country. Coordinator for the Arctic Region, Bureaus and Offices Reporting Directly to the Secretary, Office of the Coordinator for Cyber Issues, Office of the U.S. That’s why this heinous crime against small children to satisfy the sexual lust of foreign pedophiles is so abhorrent. The CFO operated a hotline and the DFA Office of Migrant Workers Affairs maintained a HELP Facebook page for OFWs in distress and their families to request assistance. The government continued to deploy DSWD social workers in Philippine diplomatic missions in Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates (UAE), Kuwait, South Korea, Qatar, Malaysia, and Hong Kong. According to the 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report, Filipino human trafficking victims have been identified in over 37 countries across five continents. • Establish and implement a process to ensure systematic and ongoing input from a diverse community of survivors on the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of anti-trafficking policies and programs. Human Trafficking in the Philippines.Research Paper; Human Trafficking in the Philippines.Research Paper. The lack of a centralized database tracking illegal recruitment and human trafficking continued to hamper the government’s efforts to prevent trafficking and hold traffickers accountable. Of the four labor traffickers convicted under the illegal recruitment statute, the court sentenced one trafficker to a prison term of 10 to 12 years and one year to life imprisonment with a fine of two million pesos ($39,490); two traffickers awaited sentencing. The government increased protection efforts. Global AIDS Coordinator and Global Health Diplomacy, Special Presidential Envoy for Hostage Affairs, Special Representative for Afghanistan Reconciliation, Special Representative for Syria Engagement, U.S. Security Coordinator for Israel and the Palestinian Authority, Under Secretary for Arms Control and International Security, Bureau of Arms Control, Verification and Compliance, Bureau of International Security and Nonproliferation, Under Secretary for Civilian Security, Democracy, and Human Rights, Bureau of Conflict and Stabilization Operations, Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and Labor, Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs, Bureau of Population, Refugees, and Migration, Office of International Religious Freedom, Office of the Special Envoy To Monitor and Combat Anti-Semitism, Office of the U.S. Special Coordinator for Tibetan Issues, Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, Under Secretary for Economic Growth, Energy, and the Environment, Bureau of Oceans and International Environmental and Scientific Affairs, Office of the Science and Technology Adviser, Bureau of Information Resource Management, Bureau of the Comptroller and Global Financial Services, Office of Emergencies in the Diplomatic and Consular Service, Office of Management Strategy and Solutions, Bureau of International Organization Affairs, Bureau of South and Central Asian Affairs, Under Secretary for Public Diplomacy and Public Affairs. – The Huffington Post, https://borgenproject.org/wp-content/uploads/The_Borgen_Project_Logo_small.jpg, 10 Facts About Human Trafficking in the Philippines, 10 Facts about Human Trafficking in the Philippines, The Department of Social Welfare and Development, The Philippine Plan for Gender-Responsive Development. Through continued operation of the Philippine Internet Crimes Against Children Center, known as the PICACC, opened in 2019, the Philippine National Police Women and Children’s Protection Center (PNP-WCPC) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) Anti Human Trafficking Division partnered with foreign law enforcement agencies and an NGO to improve the effectiveness of investigations of online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC). The government did not report comprehensive unduplicated protection data. The government increased the IACAT Secretariat’s budget to 92.9 million pesos ($1.83 million) from 80.39 million pesos ($1.59 million) in 2018. These 10 facts about human trafficking in the Philippines demonstrate that trafficking remains a major problem in the country. An estimated 10 million Filipinos work outside the Philippines in nearly 170 countries, approximately three percent of whom work without a contract. Author: Tomeshia, Rating: 5/5 based on 8 reviews, Price: $5/page. Slow moving courts, the need for additional training on handling digital evidence in hearings and trials, and too few prosecutors also hindered the effective and timely prosecution of trafficking crimes. Reports in previous years asserted police conduct indiscriminate or fake raids on commercial sex establishments to extort money from managers, clients, and victims. The government’s crime victims’ compensation program reportedly awarded an unknown amount of compensation to 27 victims of trafficking. John Gabriel Agcaoili, ABS-CBN News Updated as of Jun 26 05:28 AM. As reported over the past five years, the Philippines is a source country and, to a lesser extent, a destination and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking … The government initiated prosecution of 266 alleged traffickers (227 in 2018); these included 24 labor trafficking defendants (18 in 2018), 239 sex trafficking defendants (195 in 2018), and three defendants charged with using a child for soldiering (one in 2018). The government increased its support for victims who served as witnesses during trials by hiring four additional victim-witness coordinators and increasing the number of trafficking victims who received benefits from the witness protection program, which included housing, livelihood and travel expenses, medical benefits, education, and vocational placement. The government did not make efforts to reduce the demand for commercial sex acts. • Create a central database for information on illegal recruiters and human trafficking cases to facilitate interagency coordination in detecting, investigating, and prosecuting traffickers. Internal trafficking is a major concern in the Philippines. Community reintegration services, including trauma-informed care, employment training, and job placement for survivors also remained inadequate. Social services provided to OFW trafficking victims included coordination with the host government, contract buy-out, shelter, provision of personal necessities, medical aid, financial assistance, payment of legal fees, repatriation, and referral to appropriate agencies. 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