UN expert: Human smuggling in PHL still an alarming problem
November 9, 2012

A United Nations expert on trafficking on Friday said human smuggling in the Philippines has remained alarming and called on the government of President Aquino to do more to address the long-standing problem.

Joy Ngozi Ezeilo, Special Rapporteur on trafficking in persons, said the Philippines “is undoubtedly a source country for human trafficking with its citizens being trafficked in different parts of the world.”

Ezeilo blamed poverty, youth unemployment, gender inequality, conflict, disasters and the prevailing cultural social frameworks for the unabated trafficking of persons, mostly women, in the country.

Common forms of trafficking in Filipino men, women and children are sexual tourism, cybersex and pornographic purposes, forced and bonded labor, domestic servitude, forced marriages as we well as organ transplantation.

“It’s very clear that the Philippines is a source country and the problem has not declined,” Ezeilo told a press conference.

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