DSWD: Human trafficking feeds on poverty, lack of education

from the Inquirer

By Vicente Labro
Visayas Bureau

TACLOBAN CITY – The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) pointed at poverty and lack of education as among the reasons people fall prey to human trafficking.

Evelyn Gañas, officer-in-charge of the DSWD Crisis Intervention Unit, said that most of the victims left their homes “to seek a bright future in the city (like Manila) and traffickers took advantage of their situation.”

Gañas added that women and minors living in areas hit by calamities were most vulnerable to traffickers because they or their parents had lost their livelihood.

Most of the intercepted young victims were promised work as house help, Gañas noted.

A “big percentage” of the victims only had elementary education while some were high schools dropouts, she added.

“Minors or children and women are most vulnerable to traffickers especially during summer which is the peak of recruitment,” she said.

Many of the victims were from 13-17 years old. She said that last year, the regional DSWD rescued 97 persons from this age group, followed by those between 18-22 years old (59 persons) and 23-28 years old (17).

Gañas said the Alliance of Networks for Assistance to Strandees (Angkas), which is composed of a DSWD employee and some volunteers, intercepted the victims at the port of Allen, Northern Samar and at Liloan, Southern Leyte.

Members of the Visayas Forum Inc., a nongovernment organization, also intercepted other victims at the Matnog port.

DSWD-8 data showed that 108 young women became victims of human trafficking in Eastern Visayas in 2007, representing 60 percent of the 179 victims in the region.