UN exec: Human trafficking in Phl underreported

MANILA, Philippines - Human trafficking in the Philippines is underreported and the government needs to strengthen measures to combat this illegal activity, a United Nations official said yesterday.

Speaking to reporters in Makati, Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, UN special rapporteur on trafficking in persons, said law enforcement agencies tasked to combat human trafficking like the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), Philippine National Police and the National Bureau of Investigation are collecting “confusing and conflicting” data.

“While acknowledging that many of its agencies involved in the fight against trafficking are collecting data on trafficking cases, there is a lack of standardized collection of statistical information to effectively determine the prevalence rate, forms, trends, and manifestations of human trafficking,” she said. “Data collected are therefore confusing and conflicting from one agency to another.”

Ezeilo is on  an official visit from Nov. 5 to 9 on the invitation of the government.

A human rights lawyer and a professor at the University of Nigeria, Ezeilo gathered first-hand information on the current legislative work to combat human trafficking.

She conferred with officials from the IACAT, Department of Justice, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Commission on Human Rights, PNP, NBI, Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Bureau of Immigration, various civil society groups and the newly created Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao Council Against Trafficking based in Zamboanga City.

Ezeilo had also traveled to Cebu City as part of her investigation.

She said a full report on the findings of her investigation will be submitted to the United Nations Human Rights Council in June next year.

“The Philippines is undoubtedly a source country for human trafficking with its citizens being trafficked in different parts of the world, mainly owing to the socio-economic conditions prevailing in different parts of the country, including growing poverty, youth unemployment and gender inequalities,” she said.

“In addition, armed conflict, clan feuding as well as natural disasters cause large numbers of persons to be displaced and this further adds to the affected communities’ vulnerability to trafficking.

“These socio-economic conditions have thus been the root causes of the complex, dynamic and hugely underestimated internal trafficking from one part of the Philippines to the other, mostly from rural to urban areas.”