From the late 70’s, the Philippines have known an economic decline that has lead a lot of citizens abroad to look for new opportunities. And often happens, many of those people were taken advantage of and lied to. Whether, by not receiving the pay agreed on prior to departure, being deceived about the nature of work they would do upon arrival, having to endure terrible working conditions, or ending up in sex trafficking networks, a vast number of those people seeking a better life have found themselves abused at the hand of traffickers with various agendas. A recurring issue has been women recruited for “entertainment”, being trained to sing and to dance, and ending up being forced to perform sexual acts for sex trafficking organisations. It is important to note that although human trafficking is a phenomenon that touches a lot of Filipinos going abroad, the problem also occurs in the country itself. 

In 2003, the United Nations Global Programme against Trafficking in Human Beings made a special report on the subject named Trafficking in Human Beings from the Philippines: A Survey of Government Experts and Law Enforcement Case Files. The report studies 123 victims and from it, is able to establish information such as typical profile (girls between 18 and 27 as well as many minors), typical recruitment process (“willing travellers” through legal or illegal agencies), the most likely places to be trafficked to (South Korea largely leading, followed by Malaysia). Very limited information is available regarding the offenders -which comes as no surprise- but there is one constant: the presence of foreigners, often owners of nightclubs and karaoke bars abroad where the girls are to be deployed.

The means of exiting the Philippines and entering foreign countries are many and operate at different levels, legal or not; some use corrupted airport staff or immigration border agents. Others use purposefully inadequate visas (internships, family tours, religious movement…) while others still opt for fake documents. An issue that should be raised as well is the fact that traffickers count on the grey areas that can be found, starting with the very loose definition of what smuggling and trafficking humans is. Some do not outrightly lie to their future victims but hide essential information from them regarding the job they are to do and the conditions they will be living in. Moreover, trafficking victims often do not know they are being transported illegally.

According to ECPAT, human trafficking is the third largest international crime after illegal arms and illegal drugs, bringing in several billions of US dollars every year and it would appear that almost eighty percent of human trafficking is for sexual exploitation. Human trafficking is a very global phenomenon, touching every continent. So why are the Philippines getting so much attention in this matter? While most regions have one specific role in the trafficking process, being either an origin country, a transit country, a destination country or an internal/domestic country, the Philippines cumulates all four characteristics, making it a major actor in this phenomenon. The country may have adopted various laws to punish human traffickers over the past two decades, the problem remains incredibly hard to tackle through the legal processes.. 

Very few cases make their way to court for several reasons: firstly, because the victims may often find themselves charged with related crimes (illegal recruitment, illegal entry, violation of passport laws, etc.) and there is no specific anti-trafficking law to protect them; but also the low level of co-operation between law enforcement officers and prosecutors resulting in frequent dismissal of cases. The fear of reprisal from the traffickers is also an important factor in the victims not wanting to file complaints. The U.S. Department of State’s 2017 Trafficking in Persons report explains that “conviction rates for perpetrators remain low in Asia due to inadequate interventions from governments, corruption, and weak supply chain monitoring.” A lack of manpower and expertise in combating trafficking is the main problem in the Philippines, regardless of the Filipino government’s efforts to fight this crisis, as acknowledged by the international community.

As the scale of the problem keeps expanding, the 2016 Global Slavery Index noted that an estimated 401,000 Filipinos are living in modern-day slavery. It was also estimated that the Philippines has an “average vulnerability score of 47.67 out of 100”. The UN recommends prevention campaigns on the risks that easy money offers usually bring. The aim would be to make those scams as known as possible to the most likely targets of the human traffickers: the fragile populations. Indeed, perhaps the most perverse aspect of this human trafficking is that those criminals intentionally go after people in desperate need of money by promising to get them out of the poverty and violence they live in. This is how they manage to get so many “willing” workers initially; they target people who can’t afford to say no. 

Although according to the US Department of State the Filipino government’s efforts keep increasing over the years, concrete results are slow to come. And all the more so that with the rise of pornography, human trafficking has taken an online dimension as well over the past few years. More and more, sexual exploitation is directed towards a new purpose, “online entertainment”. The trafficked victims are used to create pornographic content and a worrisome factor is the growing place of child pornography. This aspect of human trafficking is especially tricky to fight as porn culture keeps growing and getting out of control. Those sex traffickers answer a demand that is unlikely to decrease unless some serious measures are taken in regards of pornographic production. According to Fight The New Drug, an organisation aiming at raising awareness regarding pornography, “Modern sex trafficking and porn are inseparable.”