David Lee

 

Max Davies

 

02/06/08

 

 

 

Background Information

 

 

      Human trafficking takes place all around the world today; however, most people are barely aware of the fact that we are living in such a society that is filled with these conceived activities that are extremely difficult to spot. The International Organization of Migration (2001) has defined trafficking as "Any illicit transporting of migrant women and/or trade in them for economic or personal gain." Today, human trafficking is one of the largest growing areas of international criminal activities and it is also considered the third largest source of profit in criminal activities behind drugs and guns (Nivatvongs 1). With use of trickery, force and sometimes promises that are never kept, women, men and children all over the world are bought and sold for forced labour and sexual abuse. The slave trade ended in the mid 1800s, and everyone assumes that human rights and freedom has been restored to a certain extent. While it is certainly true that human rights and freedom has ameliorated due time, there is still a huge population in the world who still suffer from the lack of freedom and human rights, essential to every human being. There are estimated 27 million people living in slavery around the world today (Human 2). From many victims all over the world, Filipinos, especially Filipino women are majour victims in Asia. According to humantrafficking.org, the number of women trafficked range from 300,000 to 400,000, child victims ranging from 20,000 to 100,000 (Philippines 1).

 

     The Philippines had tried to prevent the trafficking of young children, which is a large part of trafficking, for over decades, but Philippines still seem to experience a large number of children open to being trafficked and sexually violated. Awareness about sexual exploitation of children is high and the Government has introduced a series of policy and legislative measures since the early 1990s to address the issues (Human Trafficking 5). Philippines, however has not seen drastic decrease in the number of crimes related to child trafficking even though there has been some improvement over the past few years. Under the United States and Norway, NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organisation) adopted a comprehensive plan to help fight international trafficking. "NATO personnel will support the efforts of authorities in host countries to combat trafficking while workin with non-governmental organisations and anti-trafficking experts" (A New Form 3). Also, in his address to the United Nations in 2003, President Bush announced a $50 million initiative to combat trafficking in persons to countries all around the world; however, he didn’t include the Philippines which is one of the top countries which suffer the most today (A New Form 2). The government also became part of the Convention on the Elimination of all Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAW) in May 2001, which is a treaty that deals with human rights of women specifically. Predictably this should have contributed in the decrease in trafficking of women; however, Philippines has not ratified it yet thus, there was not much benefit from the treaty. Lastly there was an agreement between Philippines and Belgium on September 15, 1994, which tried to reduce the amount of people, trafficked from the developing countries to Europe. This didn’t reduce the amount of Filipinos trafficked at a great extent (Nivatvongs 1).

 

     Another reason for the high number of human trafficking victims in the Philippines is the low standard of living. There is a large contrast between the city and the rural areas of the Philippines and as a whole, more than 40% of the population, or over 30 million people live in poverty according to BBC (Doyle 1). These people make a living by picking up junk from the garbage dump, which doesn’t meet any standards. During the 1990s, Philippines made a huge effort to decrease poverty and succeeded. According to the Family Income and Expenditure Survey of 1997, poverty incidence fell from 49.3% of total population in 1985 to 40.6% in 1994 and 36.8% in 1997 (Henderson 1). Unfortunately, according to an Acco Brands Corp study conducted by Ernie Pernia and Arsenio Balisacan, the decline in poverty rates did nothing to improve the country's unequal distribution of income. Despite the sustained economic growth from 1985 to 1997, the poorest 20% of the population only improved their income 0.5% for every 1% growth in average income (Henderson 2). In these harsh conditions, people have a hard time supporting their own family as well as themselves. In the verge of survival, these people and anyone else would do anything for some cash, in some cases, selling their own children or their wives away, sometimes to traffickers. Countries that have a large percentage of its population living in poverty like the Philippines are prone to this kind of international crime.

 

     Jose de Venecia, part of the Philippines’ House of Representatives mentioned in the BBC article that only if the foreign debt would reduced significantly, the poverty will decrease; however, he also mentioned that, "The debt repayments and the government payroll take up 90% of the budget" (Doyle 1). According to his quote, it seems to be second to impossible to decrease the percentage of poverty, unless some solution is made first for the foreign debt. There is also a problem with the distribution of income. This can easily be seen by the scarcity of the middle class in the Philippines. Some people are rich and thus live in urban cities, while the poor live in the alleys. Also, the Asian Financial Crisis in 1997, which started in Thailand, had a negative impact on Philippines as well as other Asian countries. Lastly in the year of 1997 and 1998, there was a massive inflation in prices of food right after the Asian Financial Crisis, caused by the massive damage to the agricultural sector (Henderson 1). As a result to the high prices and the weakened labour market, level poverty started to rise again. All of these consecutive economic problems made it impossible for Philippines to escape poverty for the past several decades.

 

     All of these situations that an average Filipino goes through contribute Filipinos to become the leading victims of human trafficking. The male dominated society, the vast number of people living in poverty due to international debt and the unfair distribution of income all build up and fuel human trafficking. This is the perfect environment the traffickers crave for, in order for their business to prosper. Thus today, Philippines is one of the major countries that is affected by human trafficking.

 

 

 

 Solutions

 

 

            The Philippines is one of the largest victims of human trafficking and this crime is still active after several decades of trying to prevent it by the Philippines’ government. Even though it seems like it will never cease because of several factors such as it’s reputation and it’s cultural background, it is not impossible to drastically decrease the amount of people who are trafficked in the country to overseas. Human trafficking affects both physical and mental health of the victims as well as bring about economic problems. Thus by preventing these incidents from occurring not only the well being of the citizens will increase but also it will bring about a better society to live in for the Philippines and well as other countries.

 

                  First of all, Philippines owes a huge amount of foreign debt which is one of the major factors that helps continue the high rates of poverty in the Philippines. Poverty is the most significant reason beneath the human trafficking industry and it is also the most challenging matter to get rid of for the government, literally taking centuries; however there is solution that will have an impact on the level of human trafficking, even though it will not have a great impact on deminishing the degree of poverty. Reducing the taxes will potentially decrease the number of human trafficking. Reducing the taxes will give the Filipino citizens some incentives for the people who are affected by the high tax rates in the Philippines, where it is also known as the country with the second most highest power rates in Asia after Japan. Japan doesn't suffer from high rates of povery like Philippines do, thus it is easy to see how corrupted the Filipino government truely is. Lowering tax rates have have its downsides, however, it is a risk worth taking, considering lowering taxes no not require foreign aid, which Philippines has relied on for the past years, which is ironically the one-way road to poverty with increasing amount of foreign debt.

 

            Secondly, human trafficking is very under-rated and many people are not too informed by this serious matter. Human trafficking is the third largest international crime after drugs and guns; however, compared to these two crimes, human trafficking is far less informed in the media today. Only by getting informed, can people react and find a solution for human trafficking. The people in the Philippines and in the rest of the world need to be educated and constantly reminded by the media about this crime in order for the people to realise that it's not a once-in-a-while matter but in any moment, twenty seven million people are being trafficked world wide today. According to Diane, Fahey, that is "every person in the states of New Hampshire, Vermont, Massachusetts, and New York being held in captivity and forced twelve to fourteen hours a day to labour in sweatshops, toil as agricultural workers, or service sexually many customers with no hope that it will ever end except by death" (Diane 1).

 

            As mentioned above, changing the state of minds of culture and tradition, increasing the standard of living by paying off the international debt are the most important steps to getting rid of human trafficking in the Philippines. Decreasing tax rates in te Philippines and informing the people using the media are solution that potentially brings the Philippines few steps out of the human trafficking industry.

 

 

 

YouTube (The Human Market) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rZ5PX8M8zBA

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Works Cited

"A New Form of Slavery." The White House. 2008. 24 May 2008 <http://www.whitehouse.gov/infocus/traffic/>.

 

 

Diane L. Fahey. ExpressO. "Can Tax Policy Stop Human Trafficking?" 2008. 29 May 2008. <http://works.bepress.com/diane_fahey/2/>

 

Doyle, Mark. "Philippines Suffers Poverty Divide." BBC News. 14 Sept. 2005. 18 May 2008 <http://www.news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/asia-pacific/ 4245422.stm>.

 

Henderson, Clarence. "Notes on Poverty in the Philippines, 2002 Edition." Asian Business Strategy & Street Intelligence Ezine. 20 Aug. 2002. 24 May 2008 <http://www.apmforum.com/columns/orientseas49.htm>.

 

"Human Trafficking." The World Revolution. 23 May 2008 <http://www.worldrevolution.org/Projects/Webguide/GuideArticle.asp?ID=1421>.

 

"Human Trafficking & Modern-Day Slavery." Gvnet. 17 May 2008 <http://www.gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Philippines.htm>.

 

Nivatvongs, Nitara. "Philippines and Human Traffic." TED Case Study. Dec. 2001. 18 May 2008 <http://www.american.edu/TED/philippine-traffic.htm>.

 

"Philippines." Humantrafficking.Org. 2008. 17 May 2008 <http://www. humantrafficking.org/countries/philippines>.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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