Image via Wikipedia FOR the second consecutive year, the Philippines has been placed on the Tier 2 Watchlist, based on the 2010 Trafficking in Persons Report. The 2010 Report on 177 nations, made public last year by the US State Department’s Office to Monitor and Combat Trafficking in Persons, is the most comprehensive worldwide report on the efforts of governments to combat severe forms of trafficking in persons.
What this means, says Cecil Flores-Oebanda, founder and president of Visayan Forum, the Philippine NGO on the forefront of the campaign against human trafficking, is that the government is not doing enough to curb this modern-day slave trade. It also means that the number of trafficking victims has been increasing significantly.
The ranking, she adds, is also due to the government’s lack of concern about the conditions of domestic helpers. “This is our weak spot,” she adds. “We have to start paying attention to how our maids are treated.”
Aside from being globally shamed for abetting modern-day slavery, being relegated to Tier 2 can cost us $250-million in non-humanitarian aid, says Cecil. It’s a bad rap, but watch out if we slip and make it to Tier 3, which means the government is not doing anything to solve the problem. “That would mean that all non-humanitarian aid would be cut off completely,” the VF official points out. (PAC)
No Room for Second Best - INQUIRER.net, Philippine News for Filipinos
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