Manila: The Philippine government has mobilised various agencies to give work to survivors of Typhoon Haiyan who left central Philippines and are now based in Manila, to protect them from human traffickers and illegal recruiters, a senior official said.
The Interagency-Council Against Trafficking, and the departments of labour and social welfare, have formed a coalition to handle the problem at the Villamor Airbase in suburban Pasay City where typhoon survivors enter Manila aboard mercy flights of C-130 planes, said Alice Bonoan, regional director of the social welfare department.
The government has been looking for jobs for the typhoon survivors from Leyte and Samar so that they would not succumb to illegal recruiters and human traffickers because of their vulnerabilities, said Bonoan,
Typhoon survivors were also instructed to look for jobs through the labour department and at the Public Employment Service Office at various local government agencies, said Bonoan, a front-liner of the government’s information campaign as head of a desk that processes the entry of typhoon survivors at the Villamor Airbase.
“Initially, they are empowered with the help of audio visual presentations and information kits, a part of the government’s information campaign. They are taught how to detect and avoid illegal recruiters and human traffickers,” said Bonoan, adding the information campaign is done at the grandstand of the Villamor Airbase and at other places where typhoon survivors who have no relatives in Manila are brought.
The government’s information campaign is focused on disaster victims, minors, and orphans, said Bonoan.
Typhoon survivors were also given one hotline and two action lines (9319141, 1341, and 02-1341 for those in the provinces) to report illegal recruiters and human traffickers who pester them, said Bonoan.
Meanwhile, Nancy Lindborg, assistant administrator of the US Agency for International Development’s (USAID) Democracy, Conflict and Humanitarian Assistance, also expressed concern about the vulnerability of women and children who survived Typhoon Haiyan.
“The government of the Philippines and the international community will need to make every effort to ensure and strengthen local and national protective services (for children at the disaster zone),” said Lindborg.
Explaining what must be done to protect women and children, Lindborg said that evacuation centres should be a safe place for them, adding that efforts must be made to reunify orphaned children with other relatives.
Noting that typhoon survivors who lose hope always fall prey to illegal recruiters and human traffickers, American congressman Chris Smith, a Republican, earlier told the foreign affairs subcommittee at the Capitol in Washington, “Women, children, the elderly, and those with special needs always fare worst during disasters.”
As soon as they are illegally recruited abroad, they enter “a hell on earth”, warned Smith, who was with a delegation that visited the disaster zone in central Philippines last week.
Typhoon survivors in central Philippines are closely watched because they could be a major source of human trafficking in the Philippines.
The US State Department has not yet categorised the Philippines as a country with full compliance to efforts to eliminate trafficking.
Child labour and child sex tourism are still a serious problem in the Philippines, said the US State Department’s 2013 report.
Typhoon Haiyan killed 7,400 people, affected 11 million residents, five million of whom have become homeless in 44 provinces in central Philippines.
