MANILA, Philippines – The United States challenged the Philippines on Friday, June 20, to convict more labor traffickers and curb corruption, among other things, as the Southeast Asian country failed to meet minimum standards to end modern-day slavery.

The US State Department made these recommendations as it gave the Philippines a Tier 2 rating in its annual Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report for the fourth straight year.

A basis for granting aid, the TIP Report 2014 said the Tier 2 rating is given to countries whose governments “do not fully comply” with the Trafficking Victim Protection Act’s minimum standards, “but are making significant efforts to bring themselves into compliance with those standards.”

“The government of the Philippines does not fully comply with the minimum standards for the elimination of trafficking; however, it is making significant efforts to do so,” the TIP Report said.

The report cited the following gains in giving the Tier 2 rating: 

• The government “nearly doubled” its funding for the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking to around $2.4 million in 2013, and “continued efforts to implement” anti-trafficking laws and policies.

• It “undertook notable efforts” to prevent the trafficking of migrant workers.

• It “obtained 31 trafficking convictions.”

Corruption worsens trafficking

The report said the country, however, did not “make significant progress in ensuring victims could access specialized services.” It also said the government provides “severely limited” protection for male victims.

“Corruption at all levels of government, including in Philippine diplomatic missions abroad, enabled traffickers and undermined the government’s overall efforts to combat trafficking,” it said. (READ: Victim unmasks self, faces OFW ‘abuser’)

A key finding, the report added, is that the Philippines “did not obtain any convictions for labor trafficking” from April 1, 2013 to March 31, 2014.

In contrast, the government “convicted 31 sex trafficking offenders, compared with 25 during the previous year.” (READ: Gradual justice: Human trafficking convictions over the years)

“The government continued to prosecute sex and labor trafficking offenses and to impose stringent sentences on convicted sex traffickers, but it did not make progress in convicting labor traffickers and its overall number of convictions remained low compared to the size of the problem,” the TIP Report said.

‘Horrific’ crime, Kerry says

While the US State Department retained the Philippines’ rating, however, it named and shamed Thailand, Malaysia, and Venezuela. It dumped them at the bottom of a list of countries accused of failing to tackle modern-day slavery.

The 3 countries, plus Gambia, found themselves added to nations such as Iran, North Korea, and Syria already languishing on the lowest tier of the State Department’s annual report into human trafficking – a designation which could trigger US sanctions.

“We each have a responsibility to make this horrific and all-too-common crime a lot less common,” US Secretary of State John Kerry wrote in the TIP Report, denouncing what he called “the evil of human trafficking.”

It was a challenge “inextricably linked to the broader effort to spread the rule of law and face the crisis of failed and failing states,” he said.

The scale of human trafficking is staggering. The International Labor Organization estimates some $150 billion in profits are generated annually for private businesses from trafficking, of which $99 billion goes to the sex industry.

An estimated 20 to 27 million people are believed to live in slavery around the world. – with reports from Agence France-Presse/Rappler.com

Victim image from Shutterstock