(We yield this space to the statement of the Philippine Interfaith Movement Against Human Trafficking due to its timeliness. – Ed.)
IT WAS World Day Against Trafficking yesterday. The theme was “Victims’ Voices Lead the Way”, upholding the dignity, desires and dreams of our brothers and sisters who have fallen victim to human trafficking. Truly, they should be included, heard, and involved as we seek to address this social problem.
Even with the current status of the Philippines as a Tier 1 rank by the US Department of State TIP Report, human trafficking still thrives in the crevices of poverty, hunger, and massive joblessness. This is even aggravated as majority of the population are poor families struggling to survive from the economic backlash of the pandemic. Early this year, we have witnessed the exposition of well-coordinated trafficking of women in Syria, although reports were already made that all the victims were already repatriated back home. What was alarming was it involved officials in the government bureaucracy that made it a large-scale scheme.
Since the pandemic, thousands have been repatriated or have returned back to the country, facing the cyclical problem of unemployment, hunger and poverty, the same reasons why they had to leave our country. They join the many other Filipinos who are grappling against the economic impact of the prolonged lockdown in the country, unable to support their families who are relying on them. In a study released by IOM Philippines in May 2021, 83% of those who were able to return home remain unemployed. These are the Filipinos who became victims of human trafficking. At the same time, the Philippines recorded a significant increase of 264% cases of online sexual exploitation of children (OSEC) according to the Department of Justice, Office of Cybercrime.
When a humanitarian crisis breaks out under extreme conditions of poverty, social problems like OSEC thrive. Children become easy prey in times when families are barely surviving and grappling with hunger. Thus, government agencies, churches, faith communities and organizations must work hand in hand to support and protect vulnerable groups like children and make communities safer for them especially at this time of pandemic.
They can start by strengthening awareness and prevention campaigns against human trafficking and providing assistance to those at-risk, victims and survivors. In addition, there must be safe spaces and sanctuaries to help survivors restore their lives through psychological and financial support, and accompany them to a journey of healing.
We call on our government to intensify its campaign against human trafficking. We especially hope that it will finally address the root causes of trafficking – create life-sustaining jobs at home and extend basic social services to the poor to enable them to better their situations.
