Human traffickers use email, social media to victimize OFWs — US State Dept

Syndicates trafficking in persons have become tech-savvy, the U.S. State Department said Thursday, noting that “traffickers increasingly used email and social networking sites to fraudulently recruit Filipinos for overseas work.”

 

The 2013 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report of the U.S. government, which monitors compliance with “minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking,” also said the Philippines was "making significant efforts" to meet those standards.

 

But the report also said the country “did not... make significant progress in addressing the underlying weaknesses in its judicial system, which stymied efforts to hold trafficking offenders accountable, and the overall number of prosecutions and convictions remained disproportionately low for the size of the problem.”

 

The U.S. State Department also commended the Philippines' Susan Ople and the Blas F. Ople Center Policy Center and Training Insitute for working “tirelessly to reintegrate trafficking victims into Philippine society” and assuming a lead role in “calling for an increased focus on combating labor trafficking.”

 

Ople was hailed as one of ten “TIP Heroes” in a simple ceremony that followed brief remarks by U.S. Secretary of State John Kerry.

 

Weaknesses in the justice system

 

Some 227 cases were filed with the Philippine Department of Justice “but it is unknown how many cases were prosecuted,” the 2013 TIP report said.

 

The 24 convictions the DOJ managed to win was “a decrease from the 29 traffickers convicted the previous year,” the U.S. State Department added.

 

It also took note of the passage of amendments of trafficking laws but these had no effect on the rampant and open operations of syndicates.

 

“Nonetheless, hundreds of victims continue to be trafficked each day in well-known, highly visible establishments, many of which have never been the target of anti-trafficking law enforcement action,” the report said.

 

Recommendations

 

The U.S. State Department put forth nine recommendations for the Philippine government to consider:

 

 

The 2013 TIP Report also told the story of a Filipina—identified as “Dalisay”, who worked in Qatar and was able to flee from her abusive employer.

 

Dalisay's story was told in this fashion:

 

“Dalisay signed a contract with an employment agency in the Philippines to work as a housemaid in Qatar for $400 a month, plus room and board. But when she arrived, her employer said he would pay her only $250 a month. She knew her family back in the Philippines depended on her earnings and felt she had no choice but to stay to help her family. She quickly realized that her low pay was not the only unexpected condition of her work situation. She was fed one meal a day, leftovers from the family’s lunch: “If no leftovers, I didn’t eat.” She worked seven days a week. When she was finished working in her employers’ house, she was forced to clean his mother-in-law’s house, and then his sister’s without any additional pay. After eight months, Dalisay tried to leave but her boss just laughed and said “You can’t quit.” As a domestic worker not covered under the labor law, Dalisay was subject only to the restrictive kafala, or sponsorship system, meaning that she could not resign without her employer’s permission, change jobs, leave the country, get a driver’s license, or open a checking account without the permission of her employer. She also learned that her employer could withdraw sponsorship at any time and send her back home, so she fled and joined 56 other women who sought shelter at the Philippines Overseas Labor Office.”

 

The U.S. also noted a report from a non-government organization which pointed to “an increasing risk of boys becoming victims of commercial sexual exploitation.”

 

It also said Department of Social Welfare and Development “established a center for male victims, but at the close of the reporting year it was not yet fully operational.”

Global spread

Human trafficking can take many forms - from prostitution to forced labor such as migrant work or domestic servitude - and children also can be victims.