2,947 human trafficking victims received aid in 2013

MANILA, Philippines - A total of 2,947 Filipino victims of human trafficking and illegal recruitment worldwide sought and received assistance from the Philippine Foreign Service Posts (FSPs) in 2013, the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said yesterday.

Of the number, 432 were assisted by FSPs in the Americas, it said.

The DFA, in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), has started conducting the second Regional Workshop on Anti-Trafficking in Persons from Sept. 22 to 26 in Mexico City.

Around 30 assistance-to-nationals officers and staff from 13 Philippine FSPs in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the US are set to participate in the workshop.

It aims to provide assistance-to-nationals personnel with adequate legal, psychological and practical training that will enable them to identify situations of trafficking, render appropriate assistance with due regard to the victims’ rights, safety and special needs, advocate anti-trafficking in persons measures in their respective regions and host countries and assist in the prosecution of traffickers.

“This (workshop) is in line with the third pillar of Philippine Foreign Policy and our country’s international commitment under the United Nations Convention on Transnational Crime and its protocol on trafficking in persons,” Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert del Rosario said.

“This second regional workshop comes on the heels of the success of the workshop for the posts in the Middle East and Africa last April. It is important to bring this training program to other regions such as the Americas to ensure that the DFA continues to enhance protection to significant number of Filipinos vulnerable to being trafficked overseas.”

The resource speakers are experts from the UNODC, DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, DFA-Office of Personnel and Administrative Services, the Philippine embassy in Mexico, member agencies of the Philippine Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking such as the Department of Justice, Department of Social Welfare and Development and Department of Labor and Employment, and other relevant international and local organizations.

DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Jesus Yabes stressed the importance of conducting the regional workshops, saying that human trafficking “has victimized thousands of our kababayans.”

It has also taught creative diplomatic engagements, proper documentation of trafficking cases and trauma alleviation.

“It is, therefore, incumbent upon the DFA to ensure that our posts, as the first responders, develop the capacities necessary to fight human trafficking and address the immediate needs of the victims,” Yabes said.