Manila: A fire that claimed the lives of eight Filipino women working in an electronics warehouse in suburban Pasay City recently exposed the difficult conditions victims of human trafficking were forced to endure.
Reports said the eight women died of suffocation after afire broke out at the Asia Metro Tech Inc warehouse in Samonte Street around 1 am Friday.
Several of the workers were able to escape but arson investigators said eight had died because the only door that could be used as a safe exit had been padlocked by the Juanito Go, 68, the owner of the apparent “sweatshop.”
Lucilla Corpuz , chair of the village in Pasay City where the fire took place, said in a radio report by dzMM that the workers were forced to endure horrible work conditions, thus, the description “sweatshop.”
“The survivors said they were not allowed to venture outside of the factory and that they were always locked up in their rooms. They were only allowed days off from work three times in a year,” Corpuz said, adding that Go would not allow them to use their mobile phones.’
The survivors had been able to escape after they risked being injured by jumping off the warehouse’s roof.
According to humantrafficking.org: “Internal trafficking of men, women, and children remains a significant problem in the Philippines.”
“People are trafficked from rural areas to urban centres including Manila, Cebu, the city of Angeles, and increasingly to cities in Mindanao, as well as within urban areas,” the online resource, said.
It added that Filipino migrant workers (both domestically and abroad) who become trafficking victims are often subject to violence, threats, inhumane living conditions, non-payment of salaries, and withholding of travel and identity documents.
Corpuz said whenever the victims were caught by Go using their mobile phones, they are immediately sent home.
Pasay City police said human trafficking charges as well as criminal charges are being prepared against Go, whom reports said to be a Chinese national.
