This study documents the experiences of 24 trafficked girl-children at various stages of the trafficking process: recruitment/migration, employment, moving out/rescue, and rehabilitation/ reintegration. These girls came mostly from the Visayas region and who found themselves working in Metro Manila, Bulacan and Olongapo City. Eleven ended up in domestic work, eight in entertainment work, and five in factory work. All of them pointed to poverty as the main reason they agreed to join their recruiters.
The girls during the time of the interview were in temporary shelters undergoing rehabilitation programs in preparation for their eventual reintegration into their families. Nine of them escaped from their employers and sought assistance from authorities. The rest were rescued by the combined rescue team of the National Bureau of Investigation, Philippine National Police, Local Government Units and Department of Labour and Employment.
Although the country is replete with anti-trafficking laws, trafficking in the country is still rampant. There is also no monitoring structure to track down the recruitment activities of illegal recruiters as well as the movements of children between geographical areas. This problem results from lack of resources (human and financial) of law enforcement agencies.
This study recommends, among others, the conduct of community-based information campaign towards providing informed choices to parents and children; activation of Barangay Council for the Protection of Children (BCPC) to coordinate trafficking prevention activities; provision of incentives to poor parents who send their children to school; requiring barangay clearance to recruit; monitoring of exit and entry points commonly used in child trafficking operations; strengthening of the rescue and labour inspection programs; establishment of a legal protection center for working children; improvement of services of government-run temporary shelters; and formulation of a comprehensive program framework in addressing the problem of child trafficking.
