Lawmaker warns of child traffickers prowling evacuation centers in South

The massive dislocation of families due to the raging armed conflict in Mindanao has spurred the trafficking of children, Rep. Emmylou Taliño-Mendoza of Cotabato warned Sunday.

“A growing number of young girls and boys whose families have been displaced by constant armed strife have become extremely vulnerable to trafficking by illegal job recruiters and all sorts of predators,” Taliño-Mendoza said.

Many of the underage victims risk mistreatment and exploitation as sweatshop laborers, street slaves and child prostitutes under the employ of gangsters, or illegal workers abroad.

“Sadly, the condition in many parts of Mindanao that are being tormented by armed clashes has become highly conducive for child traffickers,” Taliño-Mendoza said.
She appealed to the Department of Social Welfare and Development as well as operators of passenger buses, inter-island vessels and airlines to exercise greater vigilance and take extra precautions against child traffickers.

“One practical way to discourage trafficking is for domestic passenger carriers to check the identity and age of every traveling minor and to ascertain whether the child is accompanied by a verified family member or relative, or by a person who is not related to the minor,” Taliño-Mendoza said.

She said unrelated adults chaperoning traveling youngsters should be checked and their identities should be recorded and verified.

A leading nongovernment group closely monitoring human trafficking in the country has corroborated Taliño-Mendoza’s apprehension.

Human traffickers are definitely preying on children dislocated by rebel attacks and the operations of government troops running after them in Mindanao, according to the Visayan Forum Foundation Inc.

The foundation said syndicates have been prowling evacuation camps for potential young laborers for overseas deployment.

It added that 34 minors have already been rescued by social workers from traffickers that sneaked them out of conflict zones in Mindanao and tried to deploy them to the Middle East on spurious travel papers.

Some of the evacuees are in 123 evacuation centers while others have sought refuge elsewhere, mostly in the homes of relatives and friends in other nearby towns.

Besides Cotabato, the three other provinces bearing the brunt of the armed conflict are Lanao del Norte, Maguindanao and Shariff Kabunsuan. –The Manila Times