The Philippines Turns a Blind Eye on Trafficking - Term Paper Example

I. Introduction Human trafficking in Southeast Asia has received for the past decade considerable attention from the intellectual community as well as on the political sector. One of the most affected countries in this developing region of Asia is the Philippines. Causes and repercussions of human trafficking on the country are still ambiguous because of the differences in the viewpoint of those people involved in the unlawful trade regarding their human rights and economic welfare. Poverty alone would not justify the whole picture. Because of the rapid development of globalization, a growing population of people has started to traverse national borders to obtain an adequate means of subsistence, to experience pleasure, and most importantly, to survive. Within regions this far-reaching development is enlarged as shorter distances, lesser costs and cultural attachments function as constructive pressures on channeling worldwide immigration. In majority of instances these transnational population flows are intentional (Loring 2007). Nevertheless, for a considerable number of people this is never the case. Individuals may be forced to commit in the sex industry or to work as sex providers, as bonded laborers, or in unkind circumstances, as slave. According to a data obtained in 2004, “of the estimated 600,000 to 800,000 men, women and children trafficked across international borders each year, approximately 80 per cent are women and girls and up to 50 per cent are minors” (Loring 2007, 108). While a major percentage of these victims are trafficked for sexual exploitation, a considerable number are being abused and mistreated for their labor as well (Loring 2007). Human trafficking is considered as one of the most widespread criminal activities at the advent of the twenty-first century. In the Philippines, narcotics and smuggling add to the horrors of women and even innocent children thrown into the sex industry. These criminal offenses provide enormous income for criminal organizations and their clients whom at times are influential and powerful people in the economic and political sectors. These human trafficking engagements are being motivated by supply and demand forces within a wide-ranging context of domestic and global disparities for several of the source and passage countries. The presence of these flows is not unpredicted as trafficking trends tend to reflect those of transnational movements, both regular and irregular, which as well driven by the same forces (Zulueta 2005). The objective of this paper is to examine the scope and effectiveness of actions and resolutions undertaken by the Philippine institutions against human trafficking of women and children alike. Hence, in order to provide a comprehensive analysis of the subject matter at hand, justifications and possible repercussions of sex trade in the country will also be discussed. II. Filipina Women: A Different Portrait of Maria Clara Women in the Philippines are more likely to be involved in sex trade if they have an interrupted formal education, a diffident experience and familiarity in the paid workforce, meager income and experience living is shanties or poor quality housing, than women in other parts of the country. The array of opportunities for perking up their income in the local metropolitan areas, for several, is rather limited. Involvement in the sex industry is one of the few easy alternatives to earn adequate income. Undoubtedly, there are local researches of street prostitution in the urbanized areas of the country that found women deeply committed to prostitution for economic survival (Zulueta 2005, 125). Moreover, the critical situation in social services subsidy, along with a high-rate of unemployment had made many impoverished. Numerous women who are involved in sex trade admitted that they had no other choice to financially support their selves and their loved ones. Even though the sex trade is far more complex than prostitution on the streets, other channels where it occurs such as escort services, sauna bath or massage parlors and night clubs may facilitate the formation of to a certain extent physical distance between the workplace and the home when these locations are outside the women’s neighborhood (Sanchez 1997). Nevertheless, when local residents participated in the sex trade on the street within their local neighborhood, the physical closeness to home, immediate family and acquaintances, can generate particular challenges related to how woman views her own self and how her significant others and people in her neighborhood see her. Researches were consistent in their findings that economic motivation in an environment of scarce and unequal opportunities forces women to engage in the sex industry; numerous assembled social supports, which is quite mediocre to meet necessities for their selves and their immediate families. Being on assistance restricts employability; obtaining employment, even a part-time or informal job, implies dropping basic benefits. Working without assistance leaves one susceptible to abuse and exploitation (Liwag 1997). For women who have children, insufficient income indicates lack of basic needs such as satisfactory housing, clothing, food, communication and transportation, which can be understood by authorities as child abandonment or neglect. Presented with the anxiety or direct risk of reprimand of their children, mothers with assistance confront a difficult decision. If they choose not to be involved in the sex trade, their children would definitely starve and maybe die. If they choose to commit their selves as sex workers, they risk the probability of legal implications for sex trade work or being indicted with social assistance scam. Hence, nowadays, women choose a newly-constructed alternative to earn sufficient income, transnational sex trade. A. Sex Trafficking and Forced Prostitution Sexual trafficking has been described as a “situation where women or girls cannot change the immediate conditions of their existence; where, regardless of how they got into those conditions, they cannot get out; and where they are subject to sexual violence and exploitation” (Toepfer & Wells 1994, 83). According to international data, more or less 30,000 women and children are trafficked every year from Southeast Asia (Richard 2000, Ch. II). In countries, such as the Philippines, where employment opportunity is low, recruiters entice women with employment prospects as models, dancers or entertainers abroad. Traffickers make use of an array of deceitful promises to encourage women who will eventually be sex workers. The traffickers take care of the needed documents such as passports and visas for the victimized women. Immediately after arrival to the foreign country, their documents are sequestered by the traffickers (Miller 2006). Abandoned and having no legal documentation, the women are enslaved and are coerced to labor without pay as payment for their debt through committing their selves to prostitution. If the women say no, they may be battered and sexually harassed or raped. The victims of sexual trafficking work under sadistic and cruel conditions. Majority of them work for more than ten hours a day, for a minimum of twenty-five days every month. They are not allowed to leave the brothels, or even their own rooms; worse, most of the time they are chained to their beds. Women are obliged to provide sexual services to at least ten customers a day, devoid of the freedom of discussing with the customer of what they will do or acts they will perform (Zulueta 2005). III. The Realities of Human Trafficking in the Philippines Philippine women are much susceptible to trafficking because of the long economic crisis experienced by countries in the Southeast Asian region. Demands for entertainer visas for Japan continued to increase in unprecedented scale. The women are defenseless in Japan, not due to their lack of education or skills, but due to their attractiveness and youthfulness in a risky or vulnerable work. Trafficking regulations are ever present but were never effectively enforced (Loring 2007). Indeed, OFWs are booming because of the crisis, not only in Asian economy, but of the entire regions in the world. Sex trafficking and prostitution are chronic in the countryside. According to investigations initiated by several non-governmental organization headed by the Women’s Education, Development, Productivity and Research Organization, secluded provinces or rural areas are increasingly becoming the preferred location for sex traffickers and prostitution organizations. Particular areas such as Negros, provinces in the Southern Tagalog, and Pinatubo areas, have made public growing incidences of prostitution, and wherein sex workers are not exclusively from the provinces, but are as well local women (Zulueta 2005). Adolescent girls are also being thrown into prostitution because of the continuously declining Southeast Asian economy. This growth in prostitution increases the risk of AIDS, specifically as contraceptive costs have increased with the devaluation in local currency and penniless government shares in distribution programs (Zulueta 2005, 132). A. Philippine Tourism and Human Trafficking The Philippines is one of the favorite countries of pedophile sex vacationers from the United States and Europe. Men from the United Kingdom and Australia are major suspects as masterminds of child prostitution in the Philippines. Recent cases of pedophilia tried in the Philippine courts involved British national, even though there are allegedly more Australian national suspects. Numerous of the sex institutions established in the Philippines are financially supported by Japanese capital. Prostitution tourists and the continuation of sex expeditions addressing the demands of Japanese, European and other white day-trippers help to sustain child prostitution thriving in the Philippines (Toepfer & Wells 1994). The endorsement of the Visiting Forces Agreement between the Philippines and the United States aggravated continuing sexual abuse and exploitation, specifically of underprivileged women and children. The US armed forces in the Philippines resulted in the presence of countless of mistreated and abandoned Amerasian children, both women and children sold to providers of sexual services, and the Philippines being called as the sex haven of Asia. In spite of this, President Estrada fought for the approval of the VFA (Zulueta 2005). For several decades, a massive prostitution scheme was mobilized and standardized to service US military assigned in a number of bases. Entertainment is the primary conduit of sex trafficking, but an array of establishments from night clubs to beach resorts to costly health clubs offer prostitution for men of every social class. A huge establishment of prostitution had been institutionalized by the presence of US armed forces bases for the rest and leisure system particularly at some stage in and since the Vietnam War (Zulueta 2005, 135). The Philippines is chiefly a source of men, women and children trafficked for the purposes of profit-making sexual abuse and exploitation and forced labor. A considerable population of Filipino men and women who go abroad for employment are prone to circumstances of forced servitude in Canada, countries in the regions of East and Southeast Asia, the Middle East and South Africa. Women and children are as well trafficked from impoverished villages in the Visayas and Mindanao to metropolitan areas for lucrative sexual exploitation, or are vulnerable to forced labor as domestic helpers or factory workers. Filipinas are as well trafficked overseas for profit-making sexual exploitation, mainly to Japan, South Korea, Malaysia, to name quite a few. Traffickers took advantage of land and sea transportation to relocate victims from rural areas to major urban areas. A developing trend is the utilization of inexpensive airline carriers to transfer victims to foreign countries (Sanchez 1997). A less significant population of women is sometimes trafficked from China and Russia to the Philippines for lucrative sexual exploitation. Tourism of child sex carries on to be a severe social problem for the Philippines. Sex tourists allegedly came from Asia, United States and Europe to commit in sexual contact with adolescents (Sanchez 1997, 83). B. The Philippine Government’s Fight against Human Trafficking The Philippine government sustains several projects to safeguard trafficking victims in the Philippines and overseas. The government provides temporary housings, temporary citizenship status, and respite from expatriation, admittance to legal, remedial and emotional therapies and services to victims of trafficking in the Philippines. The Philippine ambassadorial assignments abroad as well present psychological counsel to victims of trafficking and OFWs. The Office of Employment and Labor in 2007 initiated a reconsolidation program for Filipino workers abroad who had been mistreated and exploited while working abroad. The Filipino administration satisfactorily determines all trafficking victims; there have been no accounts of injured parties who have been incarcerated, fined or expatriated. Several victims have filed complaints of unlawful recruitment except that the government has deficient financial resources to trail and put a just end to cases successfully (Zulueta 2005). The Philippine government sustains a range of prevention programs. The government’s Interagency Council against Trafficking in 2007 instituted an anti-trafficking squad at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport to disseminate information regarding trafficking. The Philippine Overseas Employment Agency in 2006 released a new employment provisions for OFWs to safeguard them from exploitation and abuse of employers, increasing the monthly wage minimum and bare minimum age. POEA as well carries out pre-employment workshops and lectures for department OFWs, prepares Filipino diplomatic personnel overseas, and monitors foreign employers. The government as well made public an anti-trafficking advertisement on local television programs (Zulueta 2005, 138). The Bureau of Immigration has assumed on countless measures to stop human trafficking of women and children in the country. These involve deletion of numbers from immigration counters, disallowing the use of cellular phones, pagers and other communication devices and assigning eating places near airports alleged to be meeting places for traffickers and smugglers ‘off limits’ to staff of immigration. With regard to the allegations against the Department of Foreign Affairs, this organization was recognized as it is accountable for the release of passports. It is still a mystery whether claimants believe the DFA is blameworthy for the issuance of fake passports (Zulueta 2005, 140). To acquire more comprehensive, dependable information on these allegations, it is compulsory to carry out more in-depth interrogation of respondents. It is apparent from current investigations conducted in the Philippines regarding human trafficking there are isolated cases of government officials conspiring with traffickers and smugglers alike. It has as well become apparent from interviews with high ranking officials from the Bureau of Immigration that the agency acknowledges the problem and has been in the past and is recently taking steps to solve it (Zulueta 2005, 140). Probably in the transit countries, the problem rests as much with the letdown to recognize the circumstances and handle the women as victims of trafficking, as it does with involvement with the traffickers. IV. Conclusion The traditional notion of trafficking or kidnapping women for prostitution is mournfully obsolete. Nowadays, numerous women migrate abroad voluntarily in quest for a greener pasture and a better life, but instead end up virtual slaves. To put a stop to this trend, victims of trafficking should have information on their legal rights and their human rights to proper housing and health care services. They as well need further information regarding authorized procedures of migration and what services are accessible and available to them in the destination country. Furthermore, since trafficking regulations are seldom effectively enforced and official corruption becomes a fundamental fragment of the trafficking networks local and international agreements should be planned and imposed to eliminate these criminal networks. And since present anti-trafficking regulations are inclined to result in biased immigration rules that further discriminate women and keep them from pursuing equalization, trafficked women will demand new conduits to acquire needed assistance. The rules and regulations themselves as well need to be revised to safeguard trafficked women and to penalize the perpetrators. Women OFWs necessitate local and international labor regulations to defend and protect them, and the description of trafficking should be broadened to mirror the realities and difficulties of the present condition. Moreover, governments that motivate outmigration should offer suitable services to women, integrating information prior to migrating, and governments that keep helpless and defenseless women should provide them assistance. In the long run, women’s needs and demands will best be addressed when they are given the needed resources to find fulfilling, legitimate employment in their homelands, or at least can choose to go abroad because they themselves want to, not because they should. This, nevertheless, is still far from reality as long as the international economy leaves unequal shortages of employment in several regions, with sacks of high unemployment in others. Therefore, governments should do everything within the reach of their influence and power to broaden out employment prospects for women in their homelands. Temporarily, international attempts should be targeted at ratifying stricter labor regulations, presenting supervision of migration, cultivating more well-informed immigration laws, and interlacing a set of arrangements of support for underprivileged women. Works Cited Jones, Loring. "Globalization and Human Trafficking ." Journal of Sociology and Social Welfare (2007): 107+. Liwag, Dolores. "Sexual Harassment: Social Work Perspective." PASWI Journal (1997). Miller, John R. "Slave Trade: Combating Human Trafficking." Harvard International Review (2006): 70+. Richard, Amy ONeill. "International Trafficking in Women to the United States: A Contemporary Manifestations of Slavery and Organized Crime." U.S. Dept. of State (2000): Ch. II. available at http://usinfo.state.gov/topical/ global/traffic/report/homepage.htm [hereinafter TRAFFICKING REPORT]. Sanchez, Custodiosa. Contemporary Social Problems and Issues. Manila: National Book Store, Inc. , 1997. Toepfer, Susan Jeanne & Wells, Bryan Stuart. "The Worldwide Market for Sex: A Review of International and Regional Legal Prohibitions Regarding Trafficking in Women." MICH.J. GENDER & L. (1994): 83. Zulueta, Francisco. Social Problems and Issues. Mandaluyong City: National Bookstore Inc., 2005. Other References Bolton, Sally. "The Inhumanity of Human Trafficking." UN Chronicle (2005): 78. Tappan, Paul. Crime, Justice and Correction. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1971. Zulueta, Francisco. General Sociology. Mandaluyong City: Academic Publishing Corporation, 1998. Read More