The T-Visa: A chance at a new life for human trafficking victims?

GMA News Online is doing a series of stories about visas to the United States, the top destination of overseas Filipinos. According to data from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO), there were about 3.6 million Filipinos in the US as of 2010. On March 8, International Women's Day, we are featuring the T-Visa for victims of human trafficking or what is called "modern-day slavery." One of the least known visas to the United States is the Victims of Trafficking in Persons Visa (T-visa), given to victims of human trafficking,  the illegal trade in human beings for forced labor or commercial sexual exploitation.
Legal experts in the US recently expressed concern that the T-visa places human trafficking victims in a "dangerous dilemma" as it requires the victims to cooperate in the investigation of trafficking cases. In an interview with GMA News Online last week, Consul General Michael Schimmel of the United States Embassy in Manila acknowledged that the aspect of participating in investigations was indeed “a genuine concern.” However, Shimmel said “US law enforcement authorities have it as their responsibility to assure the safety of the victims.” In the interview, Schimmel assured: “It is incumbent upon law enforcement in the United States to guarantee protection and security for anyone involved with the criminal prosecution, and they take that role very seriously.”   The Consul General also explained that the government requires victims to testify in court for two reasons:

• to verify their claims, because they are under oath in the court of law; and
• to demonstrate eligibility for the benefits that come with the visa.

The T-visa, created to help curb international human trafficking, provides victims from foreign countries with “temporary legal status, with an opportunity to apply for permanent residency and access to federal benefits,” the Asian Journal said in a report published late last month.   This benefit, however, requires victims to “cooperate with law enforcement in the investigations of their traffickers”—a condition that lawyers and social service providers in the US dubbed problematic and “intimidating” for applicants since they might face their traffickers in court.    The Asian Journal said the T-visa—created by US Congress in 2000—“has been vastly underutilized” with “only a few hundred T-visas issued each year… despite the yearly quota of 5,000 available.” PHL's human trafficking status In June last year, the US government removed the Philippines from its Tier 2 Watch List for having several convictions of human traffickers in the past year.

According to the 2011 Trafficking in Persons Report of the US State Department, although the Philippines "still does not fully comply with minimum standards to eliminate trafficking, Manila is making significant efforts to do so." In the 2010 US trafficking report, the Philippines was one of the 58 countries under the “Tier 2 Watch List," which included Afghanistan, Iraq, Libya, Syria, Mozambique, Algeria, Lebanon, Yemen, Vietnam, Thailand, Laos, Malaysia, Bangladesh, India, Sri Lanka, Kazahkstan, Niger, Tunisia, Guatemala, Panama, Venezuela, China, and Russia, among others.

Those under the "Tier 2 Watch List" are countries whose governments do not fully comply with the Trafficking Victims Protection Act’s (TVPA) minimum standards yet but are working to do so.

On the other hand, those under the Tier 2 category are "countries whose governments do not fully comply with the TVPA’s minimum standards but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards." Anti-trafficking in Persons Act

In 2003, the Philippine government enacted a law -- the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act -- to go after the traffickers and help their victims. 

Since its enactment until 2009, a total of 938 trafficking cases were filed, according to the Philippine Department of Justice’s (DOJ) Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking.

At least 42 convictions have already been rendered by courts as of February 2011, the council noted.

There are three categories of trafficking acts punishable under the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act:

• acts of trafficking in persons;
• acts that promote trafficking, and 
• qualified trafficking.

The law defined trafficking in persons as the recruitment, transportation, transfer or harboring, or receipt of persons" by any means for the purpose of prostitution, pornography, sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude, and debt bondage exploitation.

“When the child is trafficked in person," “when the crime is committed by a syndicate or in large scale," or “when the offender is a member of the military or law enforcement agencies," the crook can be charged with qualified trafficking in persons. Human trafficking figures worldwide According to the Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking, these are some of the human trafficking figures worldwide:

• Some 12.3 million people are involved in forced and bonded labor, child labor, and sexual servitude;

• Majority or 56 percent of the victims come from Asia and the Pacific;

• People are trafficked from 127 countries and are exploited in 137 countries;

• Human trafficking is a $31.6-billion industry;

• Half of the trafficked victims are aged 18 to 24 years old;

• Some 1.2 million children are trafficked every year;

• More than 300,000 children under 18 are currently exploited in more than 30 armed conflicts nationwide, and

• Majority of child soldiers are between the ages of 15 and 18, but there are some as young as 7 or 8 years old.  

- with Veronica Pulumbarit, GMA News