Inquirer carried a story yesterday about the Philippines dropping in US trafficking ranking. Some excerpts:
MANILA, Philippines—After three years in Tier 2 of the United States’ trafficking ranking, the Philippines dropped a notch lower to Tier 2 Watch List, indicating that the number of victims of severe forms of trafficking in the country has either increased significantly or is significantly increasing.
According to the report, the Philippines is a source, transit, and destination for people trafficked for commercial sex exploitation and forced labor.
“A significant number of Filipino men and women who migrate abroad for work are subjected to conditions of involuntary servitude in Bahrain, Brunei, Canada, Cote d’Ivoire, Cyprus, Hong Kong, Japan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Malaysia, Palau, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Singapore, South Africa, Taiwan, Turkey, and the United Arab Emirates,” the report said.
Sad news which must all be taken as a challenge by everyone involved in the fight against human trafficking. As the UN always says, human trafficking is a crime that shames us all.
The US State Department just released a new Trafficking in Persons report. The first thing I noticed was the fact that the Philippines was downgraded to Tier 2 Watch list from Tier 2 in 2009
Download the report here. The video below features US Secretary of State Hilary Rodham Clinton’s remarks when the report was released to the press.
Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton, alongside leaders in Congress, will announce the release of the ninth annual Department of State Trafficking in Persons Report on Tuesday, June 16, 2009 at 9:15 a.m. in the State Department’s Benjamin Franklin Room.
The 175-country report is the most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons, a modern-day form of slavery. Its findings are intended to raise global awareness and spur countries to take effective actions to counter trafficking in persons. The assessment includes reports on 173 countries assigned ranks. Commentary on two additional countries, considered special cases, is also included.
Will post a link to the report here as soon as it’s out.
Trafficking in persons, according to UN.GIFT, involves the recruitment, transportation, transfer, harbouring or receipt of persons, by means of the threat or use of force or other forms of coercion, of abduction, of fraud, of deception, of the abuse of power or of a position of vulnerability or of the giving or receiving of payments or benefits to achieve the consent of a person having control over another person, for the purpose of exploitation.
We really need to know and share information about this serious social problem. Blogging, like what we are doing now, could be a good start.
This website was created with the generous support of the American people through the United States Agency for International Development (USAID) and The Asia Foundation, and is being maintained with the generous support of the American people through the United States Department of State Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons and The Asia Foundation. The contents are the responsibility of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the views of USAID or the United States or The Asia Foundation.
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