“It was hell” – Filipino trafficking victims speak out

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The Philippines may have the fifth biggest economy in south-east Asia but lingering poverty pushes many of its citizens to try and find work overseas.

The Philippines is the world’s third largest source of migrant workers after China and India.

Last year, the country’s 10 million overseas workers sent home US$22.9 billion in remittances, which helps buoy an economy plagued with high unemployment, corruption and frequent natural disasters such as the devastating Typhoon Haiyan.

But these dreams of a better life frequently turn into a nightmare as trafficking syndicates in the Philippines recruit women and girls for forced labour and sexual slavery.

In 2012, ILO research indicated that some 21 million men, women and children are currently in forced labour globally, while in 2008, the United Nations estimated nearly that 2.5 million people from 127 different countries were victims of trafficking in persons, although other estimates are as high as 27 million people.

Cecilia Oebanda-Flores, executive director of the Filipino NGO Visayan Forum,estimates that anywhere between 10,000 and 100,000 victims are being trafficked within and outside of the Philippines.

She told Equal Times that trafficked Filipino male workers are mostly sent to Sudan, Nigeria, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia, while girls and women tend to be forced into slavery and sexual exploitation in Malaysia, Hong Kong, Dubai and even eastern Europe.

 

Shattered dreams

A job as a domestic worker in Singapore gave 26-year-old Jocelyn her only hope to lift her family out of poverty. Amid uncertainty, she left her home town in Pangasinan, north of the Philippines, in November 2013.

“I was afraid to leave for a job abroad as I hadn’t left my home before. I hadn’t even been to the capital Manila before,” admits Jocelyn.

“But I knew this was my only chance to help my parents so we can pay back the huge debt we own on our family farm.”

So her mother borrowed some more money to help Jocelyn cover the 13,500 Philippine pesos (PHP), approximately US$305, required to buy her tickets and process her employment visa.

After a week, Jocelyn was off to Singapore. Along with five other girls, they were asked to pay another PHP 2,600 (US$59) each for the airport tax and other “expenses”.

Jocelyn then landed in the hands of an abusive Singaporean couple who frequently beat her and made her eat their leftovers as meals.

The three-month ordeal was made worse when she did not receive the promised US$340 monthly salary. Instead, she was wrongfully accused of stealing US$50 and, after being forced to sign a confession letter, she was detained at the Changi Prison for women.

Visayan Forum got wind of Jocelyn’s situation and managed to facilitate her release.

Oebanda-Flores told Equal Times that traffickers use strong links with corrupt public officials and transport operators to move around the victims of trafficking in persons, smuggling and forced labour.

“Global recruitment syndicates rely on their local counterparts that use intricate processes that start in far flung communities where poverty and conflict prevail,” she said.

The wounds of Jocelyn’s suffering – both physical and psychological – are yet to heal. While being interviewed by Equal Times, she was training to be a tailor under the National Reintegration Program of the Department of Labor and Employment.

The program gives former Filipino migrant workers cash loans, skills training and other work placement assistance. Jocelyn now plans to buy a sewing machine to start her own tailoring business.

“I can bear the cruelty of my employer, but I cannot afford to see my family suffer from hunger and poverty,” said Jocelyn.

 

In-country trafficking

But the trafficking of vulnerable workers does not only happen abroad.

Fifteen-year-old Ana (not her real name) comes from a remote town in South Cotabato in southern Philippines, where frequent clashes between state forces and Islamic separatists has caused decades of misery.

Ana’s mother was lured by a recruiter to send the young woman to work as a storekeeper in Manila for a PHP 3,000 (US$68) monthly salary.

Instead, she landed in a brothel in Cavite province, south of Manila, where she cleaned the bar in the morning and washed clothes for her employer in the evenings.

Ana was not paid, was forced to sleep in the bar and wear skimpy clothing.

One night, she met two Filipino Navy officers from a nearby naval base. “I thought I could seek their help because they were in uniforms. But they dragged me near the sea and raped me inside a small boat,” Ana said tearfully.

Later, her employer tried to send her to another part of the country to work as a prostitute, along with five other girls. But as they landed in Zamboanga they were intercepted by airport police who turned them over to a social welfare officer.

They are now undergoing psychological assessment in a Visayan Forum-run shelter in Batangas City, where they also have night classes in a public high school.

Ana told Equal Times that she once thought of Manila as a heaven because of its promised opportunities. “But it was hell.”

She now looks forward to reuniting with her family and getting her life back to normal.

 

International cooperation

Last April, the International Labour Organisation (ILO) and the International Organisation for Migration (IOM) partnered with the European Union to launch a US$5.5 million campaign for ethical recruitment in the Philippines.

The program aims to improve the recruitment system and address the vulnerability of workers.

Catherine Vaillancourt-Laflamme, who heads the ILO Decent Work Across Borders program in the Philippines, told Equal Times that trafficking is a global problem but that reforms can start at the level of sending countries.

Ethical recruitment would mean that workers should not pay any money to qualify for a job overseas. Job contracts should also be transparent and workers should have social protection and the right to form and join unions in their host countries.

Vaillancourt-Laflamme said Taiwan, Singapore, China and Hong Kong remain problematic countries in terms of requiring placement fees from foreign workers.

“The program seeks to promote ethical, moral and legal recruitment first in all labour sending countries,” she added.

“Recruiters at home should charge the employers for helping them look for qualified workforce instead of requiring the outbound workers to pay placement fees.”

But as thousands of vulnerable workers continue to fall into the traps of trafficking syndicates, many Filipinos still believe the escape from poverty and despair is worth the risk.