PH Remains Top-Tier Country in Anti-Human Trafficking

The Philippines has sustained its top-tier ranking in a US report on human trafficking in various countries, giving credit to the country’s policies and systems to combat human trafficking.

This comes as the US released the Department of State’s 2022 Trafficking in Persons report, which looks into the state of human and labor trafficking globally.

The report ranked the Philippines as a Tier 1 country in which the State Department said that “The Government of the Philippines fully meets the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking”.

This marks the seventh consecutive year that the Philippines ranked as a top tier in anti-human trafficking.

The State Department also praised the “serious and sustained” effort of the Philippine government in its anti-human trafficking initiatives, and cited multiple policies and programs which included the identification of victims, the drafting of standard operating procedures in the identification and monitoring of human trafficking-related corruption cases, the conviction of traffickers with significant prison sentences, and the creation of the Department of Migrant Workers, which was signed during the term of former President Rodrigo Duterte.

However, the report also said that the Philippines did not “vigorously” investigate labor trafficking cases.

“Although the government meets the minimum standards, it did not report vigorously investigating labor trafficking crimes that occurred within the Philippines,” the report read.

Moreover, the report added that the country did not take “adequate steps” in investigating and arresting individuals involved in sex trafficking.

“It did not report vigorously investigating labor trafficking crimes that occurred within the Philippines or take adequate steps to investigate and arrest individuals suspected of purchasing commercial sex from trafficking victims, nor did it provide training for labor inspectors on indicators of human trafficking. The government prosecuted and convicted fewer traffickers, and it did not report holding accountable officials allegedly complicit in human trafficking crimes,” the report further read.

The State Department then recommended that the Philippines “increase efforts to investigate, prosecute, and convict complicit officials and labor traffickers”. (GFB)