Philippines keeps Tier 1 status, but efforts to address trafficking lacking — US report

MANILA, Philippines — The Philippines continued to fully meet the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking, but failed to report vigorously probing labor trafficking crimes and holding accountable officials complicit to the crimes, the United States said in its annual report.

The Philippines kept its Tier 1 ranking in the 2022 Trafficking in Persons Report released by the US State Department. Tier 1 ranking — the highest ranking — indicates that a government has made efforts to address the problem that meet the standards of the Trafficking Victims Protection Act. The Philippines has maintained its Tier 1 ranking since 2016.

“The government continued to demonstrate serious and sustained efforts during the reporting period, considering the impact of the COVID-19 pandemic on its anti-trafficking capacity,” the report read.

Such efforts included identifying more trafficking victims than in 2020, drafting standard operating procedures on the identification and monitoring of trafficking-related corruption cases, and sentencing nearly all traffickers to significant prison terms.

It also lauded the Philippines for creating the Department of Migrant Workers, supporting more victims in participating in the criminal process, and increasing funding to the interagency anti-trafficking council.

DMW is mandated to oversee law enforcement action against illegal recruitment agencies, create a database to track recruiters involved in trafficking crimes, and raise awareness of trafficking indicators among migrant workers

Still not doing enough

But while the Philippines met the minimum standards, “it did not report vigorously investigating labor trafficking crimes that occurred within the Philippines or take adequate steps to investigate and arrest individuals suspected of purchasing commercial sex from trafficking victims, nor did it provide training for labor inspectors on indicators of human trafficking,” the US State Department said.

“The government prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers, and it did not report holding accountable officials allegedly complicit in human trafficking crimes,” it added.

The US State Department observed that the government slightly decreased anti-trafficking law enforcement efforts. Authorities reported 168 law enforcement-led anti-trafficking investigations, compared with 248 anti-trafficking operations and 233 investigations of illegal recruitment in the previous reporting period.

The Philippines initiated prosecution of 298 alleged traffickers, fewer than the 377 prosecutions in 2020. It also convicted 56 traffickers compared with 73 convictions in the previous reporting period.

The US State Department also said that while the country increased victim protection efforts, it lacked a reliable mechanism to consolidate statistics on the total number of victims identified and assisted.

Recommendations

The US State Department made the following recommendations to the Philippine government:

• Increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict complicit officials and labor traffickers
• Strengthen the capacity of local government units to provide reintegration services for trafficking survivors, including trauma-informed care, job training, and in-country employment
• Increase support to government and NGO programs that provide specialized care for trafficking victims, including child victims of online sexual exploitation
• Establish and implement a process to ensure systematic and ongoing input from a diverse community of survivors on the design, implementation, monitoring, and evaluation of anti-trafficking policies and programs
• Increase efforts to ensure victims receive court-ordered restitution and compensation ordered through civil judgments
• Increase resources for anti-trafficking task forces to conduct timely investigations, coordinated operations, and prosecutions while providing robust victim and witness assistance services
• Increase efforts to identify and assist labor trafficking victims, including by providing training to law enforcement, social service providers, and labor inspectors on indicators of trafficking
• Increase resources for law enforcement units designated to investigate all forms of trafficking
• Consistently implement the coordinated interagency response to providing services to returning Filipinos exploited in sex and labor trafficking overseas
• Create a central database for information on illegal recruiters and human trafficking cases to facilitate interagency coordination in detecting, investigating, and prosecuting traffickers

— Gaea Katreena Cabico