New Halfway House for Trafficking Victims Built in the Philippines

From the Sun Star:

Zamboanga, Philippines - A Philippine Ports Authority (PPA) halfway house, a shelter that serves as a sanctuary for victims of human trafficking, is set to be operational in February.

PPA information officer Karen Kay Rivero said that a team from the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF) will manage the halfway house.

The halfway house, or Bahay Silungan sa Daungan as it's known in Filipino, is a facility that will serve as a temporary shelter for women and children who are victims or potential targets of forced labor or sexual exploitation.

As a top priority program of PPA's Gender and Development Focal Point arm, the halfway house under the supervision of VFF provides services such as counseling, legal assistance, skills training, medical and other psychosocial assistance.

The halfway house will also have a hotline where human trafficking victims can call for assistance, according to Rivero.

The PPA, as part of its corporate social responsibility, has been working on the Bahay Silungan sa Daungan project since 1996, prompted by the numerous cases of stranded passengers in ports who have become victims of exploitation.

Other major ports in the country such as Manila's North and South Harbors, and the ports in Davao, Batangas, and in Matnog, Sorsogon have had halfway houses established.

Dizon emphasizes the inspiring fact that PPA's anti-trafficking program greatly aids countless women and minors. In the last six years, PPA halfway houses across the country saved 18,600 victims and potential targets of trafficking.

Rivero said the PPA financed the construction of halfway houses culled from its corporate funds, while its partner agency, the United States Assistance for International Development (USAID), finances its management and operation.

Afternoon Update:

*I worked closely with the Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF) during my Fulbright research in the Philippines and was always impressed with their collaborative, inclusive and innovative approach to combating trafficking.

The reality of combating trafficking is often messy: the government, law enforcement, and criminal justice system all have the potential to be corrupt, uninformed, or lack the motivation/pressure from the public, the media, or the international spotlight to make any real impact. There are certainly many skilled, well-intentioned individuals working within bogged-down government and law enforcement agencies (and also non-governmental organizations of course) that do want to make a difference, but may not know how or have the resources to do so on their own.

But the situation is far from being all fire and brimstone.

VFF created the halfway houses to intercept trafficking victims en route to exploitation and, through forging cross-sector partnerships, is making a sizable difference- the article states that halfway houses in sea ports across the Philippines have rescued 18,600 potential trafficking victims in six years of operation.

Trafficking is not a simple issue- it is a problem created by a complex stew of social, cultural, economic and political factors and, as would fit the chemistry of the problem, there is no one person or organization or economic sector that can handle trafficking on its own.

It is by learning about the collaborative relationships that VFF has developed with stakeholders like the Philippine Police, the Department of Social Welfare and Development, the Philippine Port Authority and private shipping companies (that’s the public, private, and citizen sector working together for those keeping track) that I saw true hope in an otherwise murky situation.

Indian Police Receive Training for Dealing with Trafficking Survivors

Prostitutes in India

From the Times of India:

Pune, Maharashtra - Around 40 police officers vowed to develop a more human outlook towards the victims of the flesh trade at a workshop on anti-human trafficking laws organized by the Pune police on Thursday.

Commissioner of police Shobha Ohatker said the two-day workshop was aimed at sensitizing the police officers towards victim of prostitution.

"Certain case-studies were presented before the cops. They were also told about the precautions to be taken while recording statements of victims, especially minors," Ohatker said. Project Co-ordinator of United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNDOC) P.M. Nair and Preeti Patkar from Mumbai-based Prerna took the sessions.

Nair said that the UNDOC has been conducting sessions for policemen and public prosecutors on the anti-human trafficking act. To date, it has trained around 10,160 police officers and public prosecutors in five states - Maharashtra, Goa, West Bengal, Bihar and Andhra Pradesh - in a span of last one and half years.

"The aim is to bring out quality manuals for the law enforcers along with establishing an anti-human trafficking set-up. The workshop also tries to form an NGO-police network," Nair said.

Nair expressed satisfaction at the results of the workshop. "There has been a sea of change in the way cases related to human trafficking and prostitution are being handled. 'Buyers' were held and brothel homes closed," Nair said. The UNDOC also works for rehabilitating the rescued girls, he added.

Nair said that several police officers, who attended the workshop, admitted that they were unaware of certain provisions of law. "We just tried to explain to them the prominent features of anti-human trafficking laws. It is all about looking at victim as a victim and not as an accused," he added.

Around 592 cases of human trafficking were registered in the five states last year. "In 104 operations, 933 victims were rescued of which 136 were minors. Around 1,295 traffickers along with 419 customers were arrested in all," he informed. The UNDOC has undertaken 54 sessions in Maharashtra and trained 1,772 policemen till date.

Italian Police Smash Nigerian Drug Gangs

From VOA News:

Italy's anti-Mafia unit has smashed a Nigerian drug and human-trafficking ring that forced hundreds of women into prostitution. Police say dozens of Nigerians were arrested in Italy on Tuesday and 15 others in European countries including the Netherlands.

Operation Viola ended early Tuesday carried out by Italian and Dutch police with the help of Interpol. A total of 66 Nigerian citizens were arrested, mainly in Italy, accused of smuggling compatriots into Europe to work as prostitutes and drug dealers. Police said 51 suspects were arrested and are accused of being affiliated with the Italian mafia who have been linked to human trafficking, slavery, kidnapping and international drug trafficking.

Police also uncovered "serious adoption irregularities" in which Nigerian women living in Italy were able to take infants from Nigerian orphanages and sell them abroad.

One of the police chiefs involved in the operation said one of the most chilling and touching aspects from a human point of view was the way these women were forced into slavery, the way the were trafficked. These women, he said, were completely subjugated with voodoo rites.

Expressing satisfaction at the outcome of the operation, Interior Minister Giuliano Amato noted "a powerful international organization that exploited human beings and in particular minors has been smashed." "These are extremely serious crimes that have brought slavery back, feeding off poverty," he said.

Amato added that law enforcement needed to be inflexible with these criminals, and thanks to great police work, excellent results are being achieved.

Read the full article

I find this article particularly interesting because of the use of unusual cultural factors, in this case voodoo, to control the trafficking victims. It's also good to see law enforcement agencies working together (Italian & Dutch police & Interpol). I will keep track of this and see what happens in court- now it's up to the criminal justice system to convict the offenders.

ILO Video: Human Trafficking in Moldova

Human Trafficking in Moldova: the trade of human misery

In Moldova, desperation, poverty, and high unemployment make young girls and women easy prey for traffickers, who promise them well paid jobs abroad. In a co-production with Rockhopper TV, ILO TV tells the story of Maria, forced to work illegally in Russia.

Fantastic documentary done with the help of the ILO and a trafficking victim willing to speak out and tell her story. While her situation sounds like many of the victims of trafficking, the story reveals a side of trafficking not as often exposed- trafficking in labor, especially for women. The information given by the ILO on the difficulty of reintegrating victims is particularly hard to hear. These organizations do their best to help victims and prevent future cases, but unless the overall economic situation of Moldova is improved, their tasks will be forever daunting. This video shows the many levels of cooperation between IOs, domestic organizations and government agencies.

The good piece of news from this story is that her trafficker was arrested, and the film takes you through the story of Maria confronting her traffickers. It's not easy for victims to come to this point. Fantastic documentary. 

UN: Human Trafficking Data Needed

Chief of the U.N. Office on Drugs and Crime Antonio Maria Costa

From the Associated Press:

VIENNA, Austria — Better data is needed to determine the magnitude of human trafficking and some countries are not taking the problem as seriously as they should be, the U.N.'s top anti-crime official said Tuesday. "We only see the tip of the iceberg but we have not succeeded in pushing this iceberg out of the water," Antonio Maria Costa, executive director of the Vienna-based United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime, told The Associated Press in an interview.

Costa, who described human trafficking as possibly the most difficult issue his office deals with, made his comments before a conference on the matter to be held in Vienna next month. The three-day gathering, which starts Feb. 13, is being organized by the United Nations Global Initiative to Fight Human Trafficking, launched by Costa's drugs and crime office in March 2007 to increase knowledge and awareness of the issue, promote effective responses and foster joint action partnerships.

"We need to mobilize people by understanding better and we need better statistics so as to identify specifically what is going on," Costa said, while acknowledging that the matter was "murky" and often difficult to quantify. "We are dealing with human beings, we are not dealing with commodities and that makes it difficult to measure — but we will succeed," he said.

In preparing the meeting, known as the Vienna Forum to Fight Human Trafficking, Costa said organizers have run into countries that appeared not to fully grasp the severity of the problem. "We did run into some member states that, how can I say, maintain ... a sort of benign neglect who say, for instance, 'Well, this is not human trafficking or slavery — it's just prostitution,'" Costa said.

"I sense that greater educational efforts on our part are needed to make sure that the crime is fully understood and the severity fully appreciated," he added. Costa declined to divulge any names, saying he did not want to "shame" anyone. "Those are limited cases but in some instances they are important cases, countries well known to us," he said.

Costa also noted that some states — such as Moldova, Belarus and Nigeria — were becoming very "militant" in their efforts to stop trafficking. All three were ranked as recruiting countries in a report by the drugs and crime office released in April 2006. The report showed that most victims of human trafficking are women and children who are abducted or recruited in their homelands, transported through other countries and exploited in destination countries.

The report also found that the trafficking of people for sexual exploitation or forced labor affects virtually every region of the world and called on governments to do more to reduce demand, protect victims and bring perpetrators to justice.

Read the full article

Philippine Law Enforcement Official Says Schools Should Warn Students of Human Trafficking

From the Inquirer:

Manila, Philippines- If this National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) chief agent had his way, the problem of human trafficking and how not to be caught in the traffickers’ snares would be discussed among schoolchildren.

"Law enforcers should go to primary and secondary schools to educate kids, especially young girls, on human trafficking," said Ferdinand Lavin, chief of the National Bureau of Investigation’s Anti-Human Trafficking Division. “The campaign should be focused on grades five to high school because these minors are often the target of syndicates," he added in a recent informal chat with reporters.

Lavin said the campaign should be mounted with the help of Department of Education officials. "We should strengthen the preventive aspect, perhaps by information dissemination," he said. "IACAT (Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking) should also map out where the victims came from and focus on info dissemination in that particular area."

Lavin said he has long pushed for an information dissemination campaign, even taking up his idea with IACAT officials, "we already made this appeal to the IACAT but we were told that there was no funding. That’s the problem."

Read the full article

*IACAT is the conglomeration of government agencies and non-governmental organizations that work together to combat trafficking. As the NBI officer mentions, however, IACAT works under extremely limited resources:

1) They have no full-time staff, everyone involved has a regular job on top of their IACAT duties.
2) They are given no funding by the Philippines government. The limited funds that IACAT does receive are from international sources.

Is it any surprise then that a legitimate strategy to prevent trafficking would not be pursued? Is there any question, from the example of IACAT, that a lack of political will exists in the Philippine government to truly commit resources and manpower to address the issue of modern day slavery?

I'm happy that Chief Lavin was able to present his neglected idea to a public audience, but now resources must be allotted for his efforts and this publicity to make any difference.

Will the real Philippine government please stand up?

Report from Turkey Releases Data from 2004-2006

Istanbul

From Today's Zaman: Turkish authorities intercepted some 246 victims of human trafficking in 2006, an overwhelming majority of whom came from former Soviet Union countries, official data announced yesterday revealed.

One hundred ninety-one of the victims have been safely sent back to their home countries. The data, announced in a 55-page report prepared jointly by officials from the Interior Ministry, the Justice Ministry, the police department and the International Organization for Migration (IOM), show that the number of people falling victim to human trafficking has remained steady in past years: In 2004, authorities identified 239 victims and in 2005, the number stood at 256.

According to the report, Moldova, Russia, and Ukraine top the countries of origin for victims of human trafficking in Turkey. Turkey has in the past been more of an origin country itself, but in the recent past has grown as a destination country as its economy gets stronger. Of course the most frequent place these victims were found was in Antalya, a very popular Turkish Mediterranean resort destination for Eastern Europeans. I can't tell you how many advertisements I see around Ukraine for tourism to Turkey, with the most popular site being Antalya. Not that those are necessarily connected, but to some extent, they are.

The last two paragraphs of the article really shocked me:

A significant instrument in the rescue of human trafficking victims is a hotline launched in 2005. According to the report, some 56 people were rescued by security forces after victims themselves or others dialed 157 for help. As in previous years, the clients of women forced to prostitution themselves proved to be the most helpful: Clients of friends/relatives of the women made 81 percent of the calls to 157, while only 19 percent of the calls were made by the victims themselves.

All of the victims repatriated to their countries by IOM were women, the report also revealed, and 40 percent of them had one or more children. The report also showed an increase in the number of people detained for human trafficking in 2006 compared to earlier years. Some 422 people were detained in 2006, 379 in 2005 and 277 in 2004. A total of 156 people were arrested after being brought to court, while 127 were released pending trial in 2006.

A couple things did not necessarily strike me as out of the ordinary:

1) The success of the hotline. It also has been a very useful counter-trafficking instrument here in Ukraine as well, although the national hotline also gets an excessive amount of phone calls with questions regarding migration.

2)Women victims often have children. So do male victims of labor trafficking.

However what did surprise me was the amount of victims who called in themselves for help as well as the fact that clients were willing to step out and report what was happening. Its good to hear more people are being detained under the law. I'm hoping and assuming they're detaining more traffickers and pimps as opposed to victims. I'll have to go through the whole report.