World Day Against Child Labor Press Release

Philippines: "Focus on Child Trafficking"

Child labor is far from being totally eradicated. Partly to blame is the unabated supply of children from poor provinces who are still trafficked into brothels, factories and sweatshops. It is also relatively easy to lure young girls and boys with promises of safe jobs such as domestic work. Aside from supplying the prostitution trade, most recruiters force, coerce, threaten and deceive children into worst forms of child labor.

For this reason every year on June 12, the global community launches the WORLD DAY AGAINST CHILD LABOUR, and this time, to urge leaders to seriously work against child trafficking as a major crime that must be stopped.

In support of the celebration, the Visayan Forum Foundation, an active partner of the National Program Against Child Labor (NPACL), is organizing a Town Hall Meeting on June 11, 2003 at Museo Pambata from 8-12 a.m. Some 200 persons, composed of child laborers, parents and activists, will hold a dialogue with national leaders on child labor issues and seek their commitment on these issues.

Child Trafficking into Forced Labor

Slavery is not dead. Children are still bought and sold as commodities. Some are even sold again and again to different brothel operators.

Of the 4 million child laborers in the Philippines, some 2.4 million work in hazardous situations, says the 2001 National Statistics Survey. While the numbers are hard to estimate, most of these children work away from their families - an indication that child trafficking within the country�s borders is increasing. The same survey revealed that more than 60% of these children were not aware of local and international anti-trafficking regulations.

Many prefer children because they are easier to abuse, less assertive and less able to claim their rights. They can be forced to work longer hours with little food, poor accommodations and benefits.

Child trafficking remains unabated because of economic pressures, lack of job opportunities in regions, conflict in the Mindanao Muslim areas, and the mere inability of young girls to continue their schooling.

Data reveal that trafficking in the Philippines is usually carried out by legal or illegal recruitment agencies through their organized network that usually uses coercion and deceit to entice or recruit victims. Locally based recruiters are hired as conduits posted strategically in poor communities across the country. Recruiters are paid P1,000 per recruit.

Usually, recruits or their parents are bribed by offering them money as salary advance ranging from P1,500 to P2,500. Transportation costs are likewise provided but are later on deducted from their salary. Many children and parents who usually come from poor families are easily enticed by promises of work opportunities and a better life for them.

In Focus: Trafficking in Ports

The Philippines is a major focus of the International Labor Organization Session in Geneva for the pioneering efforts to curb trafficking especially in ports.

Everyday, people enter and exit in some 123 ports across the archipelago. Some 2.5 million migrants disembark every year at the Manila Harbor alone in search of work. In another port in Matnog that connects the Visayas islands to Luzon, old boats ferry across more than 5,000 travelers everyday.

Some as young as 12 years old, many who fall victim average at 15 to 19 years old. Facilitators instruct them to lie about their ages when asked by authorities. They also fiercely warn victims not to talk to anybody outside of the group. In some shipping companies, children are reportedly packed in cabins and are only given food twice a day.

Recruiters confiscate all contact addresses and telephone numbers the children may have during transit. Instead, they force the recruits to memorize their new names and ages, and rehearse a standard reply in case questioned by authorities: �My recruiter and my companions are my relatives, and my parents have already allowed me to go with them.�

Upon arrival in ports, they disembark one by one or in pairs and regroup in waiting areas.

Some of these young girls are sold into �transit� training centers to prepare them as entertainers in Japan or domestic workers in the United Arab Emirates while waiting for the approval of their visas and working permits.

A Cathment Network

The ports, therefore, are critical places to help illegally recruited victims. Once they pass through, they just dissolve into the myriad of work in the city that often are not reached by traditional government inspection mechanisms.

The Visayan Forum Foundation (VF) recently set up two halfway houses in Manila and Davao ports providing 24-hour safety and catchment services for trafficking victims, such as temporary shelter, help-desk travel assistance, quick case referrals and legal services, and telephone hotline counseling.

The International Labour Organization (ILO), the United Nations Children's Fund (UNICEF), and The Asia Foundation are supportive of the program.

In these shelters, victims avail custody and safe haven while waiting for the proper inspection of recruiter's permits and records, or simply a return ticket home.

VF volunteers comb the terminals everyday to provide stranded victims with contact numbers so they can call the hotline during emergency.

VF works with the Philippine Ports Authority, ferry and shipping companies, the Coast Guard, Port Police, security guards, porters and stevedores.

VF has organized trainings for the newly set up anti-trafficking task force as other groups are becoming more aware of what happens at Manila's port and does its part to put a stop to it. The task force members identify and intercept youngsters who are being trafficked or who are at risk of exploitation. This approach is often referred to as the �hard approach.�

Officers of the coastguard and the port police, for example, routinely check for suspected traffickers once the ferry has docked and passengers are about to disembark. Officers patrol the passenger decks regularly, and invite fetchers of organized groups before they pack the recruits in transportation bays. Using this method, they turn over an average of 30 victims a week since they started.

The Department of Labor and Employment, upon receiving complaints, verify recruiters' work permits as to the legality of employment agencies and work place destinations. The Department of Social Welfare and Development, in coordination with their regional offices, helps in repatriating intercepted victims, locating and coordinating with the families of the children in the provinces.

Owners, managers and key personnel of shipping companies have agreed to conduct regular orientation and awareness seminars on their crew to report suspected cases of on-board. They also help distribute informational materials, through posters and desk assistance.

Workers' groups mainly composed of stevedores, porters, cargo handlers and vendors continue to refer children whom they discover to be stranded in the port or children who escaped from their employers. They are the eyes and ears of the program.

A promising soft approach of the program is the day-to-day work called �roundings�. In addition to working with the police and the port authority, Visayan Forum workers try to identify vulnerable young people and offer them help. This may be general advice, temporary accommodation or just a telephone number to call if they need help during their first few days in Manila.

The soft approach can easily turn into a hard interception when big groups are identified. When VF workers spot a group of children who look like they might be victims of trafficking, they report to the police to ask the children for identification.

Regional VF halfway houses in the provincial ports intercept suspected traffickers while they are still in the source provinces. However, should traffickers slip through, they flag the police in Manila to intercept them.

As victims stay longer in the center, they eventually recognize that trusting the social workers is important to help themselves. Many later admit their true ages and other information necessary to build the case against the recruiters. It also takes time to place the children in training programmes where they can gain skills that will better equip them to find a job.

A New Tough Law

Since efforts have tightened in these transit points, recruiters have also adapted with more evasive and discreet methods of facilitation. They also ply other travel routes such as those used by bus companies and even private vans.

But they won�t easily get away now because a new measure that criminalizes trafficking has just been signed by into a law last May 26, 2003.

Republic Act 9208 criminalizes the trafficking of persons into sexual exploitation, forced labor, slavery, involuntary servitude or debt bondage.

It provides a penalty of life imprisonment and a fine of up to P5 million. This maximum penalty specifically applies to cases of �qualified trafficking�: if the victim is a child; if he or she died or contracted aids; if the crime is committed by a syndicate; if the offender is related to the victim or is a member of the military or any law enforcement unit.

It also mandates the creation of a Council that strengthens measures to protect victims, including mandatory provision of emergency shelters, counseling, free legal services and skills trainings.

The law says that consent of victims is irrelevant as many parents are still tricked into giving their permission through promises of safe travel.

Tarpaulin-Covered "CARGO"

Gelyn, 17, was recruited to go to work in Manila along with eighty other children and adults from Davao del Norte. She was promised a monthly salary of Php 2,500 as a domestic helper in Manila.

They were part of two big groups that crossed using inter-island vessels carrying their jeepney. Each jeepney was packed with 40 passengers, much more than the normal capacity of 20 people. To accommodate all of them, mats were rolled over the floor of the jeepney where some of them were seated. Some were placed at the top load of the jeepney where their luggage was used to secure them. Food for them was salted fish rationed by the recruiter.

When they boarded the ferry in Samar, their traffickers hid them from authorities by covering their jeepneys with a tarpaulin. Still inside, the recruits were declared as �cargoes.� Some of the recruits would vomit and urinate in the jeepney since they were not allowed to go out. The trip was eight days.

When they reached Manila, the owner of the agency informed her that Gelyn owed the agency P7,500 for the meals and transportation expenses she spent for her trip. For her to pay the amount, she had to work for three months without pay. She first worked as a domestic worker, then after as a waitress and hostess.

Receiving a tip from one of her friends who escaped, operatives of the National Bureau of Investigation rescued her immediately and turned her over to the custody of the Visayan Forum.

FOR MORE INFORMATION

Three representatives of the Anti-Trafficking Task Force in Philippine Ports are here in Geneva this week to present the project to ILO representatives.

Ma. Cecilia Flores Oebanda is the President of the Visayan Forum, non-profit organization that has pioneered programs for child domestic workers. It operates halfway houses across the country to help victims of child trafficking.

Alfonso Cusi, General Manager of the Philippine Ports Authority (PPA), a government corporation specially charged with the financing, management and operations of public ports throughout the archipelago. Today, more than 86 percent of the nationwide passenger traffic pass through government ports.

Gina Virtusio, is a representative from the William, Gothong and Aboitiz shipping (WG&A), the largest and leading domestic shipping company popular for its Super-Ferry vessels. It has the biggest passenger share among other local shipping firms.