The Philippines did not slide down to the watch list category, and the latest Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report cited some progress in the country’s efforts to fight human trafficking. Still, remaining in Tier 2 in the TIP shows there’s room for improvement in the country’s campaign against trafficking in persons.
Countries placed in Tier 1 still have human trafficking cases, but their efforts to fight the problem meet the minimum standards set under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act of 2000. Tier 2 countries have made progress in the campaign but have not fully met the minimum standards for eliminating the scourge. In 2004, 2005, 2009 and 2010, when the number of victims became significant, the Philippines was placed in the Tier 2 watch list. Countries in Tier 3 face sanctions such as the withdrawal of certain forms of aid.
The United Nations, in its own report on global human trafficking, has noted that 20 percent of the victims are children, although in West Africa and some parts of the Mekong, they make up the majority. About 80 percent of trafficking cases involve sexual exploitation, with forced labor coming in a far second.
The Philippines has increased funding for the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, which is chaired by the secretary of justice. The country has also enhanced its laws against child labor, illegal recruitment and human trafficking. But prosecution of trafficking cases remains slow and assistance to victims can use improvement.
Eliminating a poverty-driven crime in this country is never simple. It is not unusual for Filipino children to be sold into prostitution or forced labor by their own parents. Teenage girls have been recruited and deployed overseas illegally as maids by their own relatives. With fake working papers, several of the girls have suffered sexual and physical abuse by their employers.
In recent years Filipinos have also been recruited to serve as drug mules and sent to countries where drug trafficking warrants the death penalty. Several of them were executed in the past year in China, with dozens more on Death Row. Whether they transported those drugs unwittingly or willfully in exchange for a fast buck, their plight should give more urgency to the need for a relentless and intensified campaign against all forms of human trafficking.