The Philippines is known to be among the leading sources of migrant workers worldwide. The Philippine economy is heavily dependent on the eight million Filipinos working abroad, as are the economies of the countries where these migrant workers are employed. Tens (even hundreds) of thousand of these migrants are trafficked, lured by promises of a better life in the urban centers. As early as the 1970s the number of Filipinos abroad has been steadily increasing. Three decades of migration practice and acceptance implies that there is an entire generation of young people who were already born into a culture where movement from one place to another is common. Overtime the culture of migration and the willingness to take any risk have been ingrained in the Filipino psyche especially in young people.
For the past years, multi-sectoral partners and some government agencies have been fighting traffickers in different fronts especially in transit level and in source communities. Some local governments have cracked down on traffickers and victims have been rescued and assisted in the ports through multi-sectoral task forces. However, to really prevent human trafficking and to make sure that the process of victimization is mitigated, the fight against traffickers must be fought on various fronts. Therefore, the battlefield for freedom must expand into a full-scale war against human trafficking.
Aims of the campaign:
• Create massive social awareness to prevent trafficking both at the supply and demand side. Communities and institutions need to work together to attack the existing culture of deceit and abuse perpetuated by traffickers. Customers and end-users should be informed about the negative psycho-social impact to victims. An enabling policy environment at local and national levels is important to sustain efforts to check trafficking in source, destination and transit areas.
• Sustaining ownership and accountability of major stakeholders especially in government to address the root causes and symptoms of trafficking. Such a commitment and change in attitude can be measured in terms of the resources, both human and financial, dedicated to combating trafficking as an end-result and contributor to poverty. Addressing collusion-practices is also a priority. Conviction of offenders must also be constantly high in their agenda.
• Mobilizing public-private collaboration by enlisting the ownership of private companies, especially ship, airline and bus companies. Government must also strictly monitor the conduct of formal recruitment and placement agencies. Private groups and individuals can help sustain programs by dedicating volunteer time and support.
• Sustaining public support to participate, initiate and monitor activities to combat trafficking. Local data and information must be constantly utilized to sustain public interest to remind people about the inherent risks trafficking and the related loopholes exploited during the migration process.
Partners: The Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. will be joined by business leaders, representatives of the international and local development assistance organizations, development NGOs, school and church representatives, corporate entities, law enforcement sectors, and private organizations. Most importantly, we need YOU to help us spread the word.
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