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#FightTrafficking: Protecting OFWs from modern-day slavery

Rappler.com

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#FightTrafficking: Protecting OFWs from modern-day slavery
Rappler spoke with migrant workers' right advocate Susan Ople and POEA Director Robert Larga on OFWs and human trafficking

MANILA, Philippines  Despite their immense contribution to the Philippine economy, thousands of OFWs continue to work under abusive employers. Human trafficking remains one of the biggest threats on the OFWs while the recent case of Mary Jane Veloso highlights the human cost of allowing trafficking to persist in the country.

Migrant workers’ right advocate Susan ‘Toots’ Ople says that trafficking almost always starts with illegal recruitment – the promise of overseas employment. This puts the country, being a known labor-sending country, a hotspot for human traffickers. (READ: ‘Desire to work abroad exploited by human traffickers‘)

According to government data, in 2013 alone, there were 1,135 victims of human trafficking. The 2014 Trafficking in Persons Report by the United States (US) State Department said the Philippines’ “overall number of convictions remained low compared to the size of the problem.” (READ: ‘Human trafficking convictions: How has government fared?‘)

What can we do to solve this? Rappler highlighted the issues on human trafficking that OFWs face and talked with Susan Ople of the Blas F. Ople Training and Policy Institute and POEA Director Robert Larga. – Rappler.com

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