Tawi-tawi: ‘backdoor’ human trafficking

 

The ‘backdoor’ gateway has become prominent again.  The recent interest on the backdoor channel is due mainly to the phenomenon of ‘trafficking of persons’.  The worst part of this human abomination is the fact that the victims are mostly women and children. 

 

But what is tragic in the ‘on and off’ (mostly ‘off’) campaign against the heinous crime of human trafficking is the usual focus on the victims rather than on the perpetrators.  And why there are people who, seemingly, would ‘voluntarily’ go through hardships to simply end as victims.

 

Another major concern both for the Philippine and Malaysian authorities is the fact that they seem helpless and clueless to put an end to this modern day abomination.  Either the authorities concerned are part of the problem or they are so stupid that they are always ‘outsmarted’ by the perpetrators. 

 

Human trafficking is a BIG and LUCRATIVE business.  According to the ‘grape vine’, the current price per head is 100,000.00 Malaysian Ringgit.  The hapless women and children are trafficked through the backdoor gateway involving the many islands in Tawi-Tawi but with Bongao as the center of operation. 

 

The women and children are ‘bought’ by modern day ‘slavers’ and these victims come from the poor section of mainland Mindanao all in search of livelihood. Their main intention is to earn so as to be able to send money back home.  It is slavery once again and the market is both for cheap labor and prostitution.

 

The women travails, as the story goes, begin in the actual ‘passage’ through the backdoor gateway.  With no documents and identification cards, they are physically hauled in motorized boats and in the middle of the night transported to Sabah. The ‘landing’ is NOT Sandakan or Semporna where there are regular patrol boats that cruise the bay and where the official immigration offices are located.  Relying again on the trustworthiness of ‘oral transmission’, one of the preferred landings of the ‘goods’ is identified to be the small town of Lahad Datu close enough to Semporna.

 

The victims' trek is akin to the ‘journey to Calvary’.  They are transported to Kota Kinabalo (KK) or Darussalam Brunei where some are traded; others are traded in Singapore.  The crude and dangerous passage is only the portion from Tawi Tawi to Sabah.  The way to Calvary ends NOT in KK or Brunei or Singapore, but it continues to Europe and onward to Latin America.

 

There is yet an uglier face to human trafficking and this is the trafficking of children and infants.  They, too, are sold and traded with no qualms whatsoever.  The ‘word of mouth’ transmission speaks of infants being bought, adopted and insured. And at ‘appropriate’ time these kids ‘accidentally’ get killed and the insurance is collected.

 

The other sides of the sad story are the ‘islanders’ (mainly from Sulu and Tawi Tawi) who seek jobs in both Sandakan and Semporna or in various plantations.  They, too, have no legal papers and they come through small speed boats that fly between the islands and Sandakan and Semporna.   They get jobs through their network of kinship. Some become waiters in the local restaurants; others land in hotels; and still others land in the plantations as agricultural workers.  Since they get no legal papers, they do not have any access to social services.  These people simply bite the bullet and continue working until they are caught and deported as ‘halaws’.

 

I believe that both the Philippine and Malaysian authorities need to come together and face squarely the issue of human trafficking.   It MUST NOT be the usual approach of ‘arresting’ and ‘deporting’ the victims. They should run after the perpetrators of human trafficking. 

 

No doubt, poverty is the major reason in human trafficking.  And when we speak of poverty, the solution is NOT simply dole out and perpetuating the culture of mendicancy through programs like the infamous and graft ridden 4 Ps. It is high time for the policy makers, particularly DSWD, to wake up and see the endless ‘hakot’ and queuing at teller machines on ‘pay days’.