NBI wants students informed on human trafficking

An official of the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) suggested yesterday that girls from the fifth grade to fourth year high school should be educated on the ploys used by human trafficking syndicates to prevent them from becoming victims.

Head Agent Ferdinand Lavin of the NBI-Anti-Human Trafficking Division (AHTRAD) said that in human trafficking cases, the government is often just reactive and it is high time that they become proactive by bringing their information campaign to schools.

“I have already made this appeal to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), which is composed of representatives from different agencies, but they said there is a funding problem,” he said.

Lavin said they should beef up their information dissemination efforts at the elementary schools since “these minors are often targets of syndicates. By the time they reach college, these girls would be more knowledgeable and have better judgment.”

The NBI-AHTRAD chief said the government should strengthen its preventive measures. One way is to counteract the efforts of criminal groups.

“If you are a good crime buster you should know where or what provinces these syndicates are operating, where are they doing their recruitment. I am appealing to IACAT to map out where the victims came from and from there focus their information dissemination,” he added.

Lavin said the IACAT could also coordinate with the Department of Education (Deped) to implement this project, adding that experts trained to handle human trafficking cases should be called in to conduct the seminars or lectures since it is a specialized crime.

 “Investigation on human trafficking is not like cases of drugs or illegal firearms cases that even if the litigation lasts for 10 years the evidence would be preserved. But in the case of human trafficking, the evidence is the people (victims) who can change their minds. They have very changeable minds,” he said.