June 21, 2023
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) said Wednesday the issue of human trafficking in Myanmar is one of the factors in the delay in its decision on whether to retain or downgrade the alert level there.
Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Eduardo Jose de Vega said relevant DFA offices are in talks amid repeated appeals from overseas Filipino workers to lower the alert level so they could travel back to the Philippines and return to Myanmar for work.
Myanmar has been under alert level 4 since May 2021 after the worsening political conflict there, months after the military takeover in February of that year.
Under this alert level, “mandatory evacuation/repatriation” for Filipinos is advised. “(Trafficking issues) were definitely a factor in our delay in making a decision regarding the Filipino workers in Myanmar. Of course, we’re also guided by our Senate,” de Vega told reporters in a DFA presser.
He, however, said whatever the decision the department would come up with, the Philippine government would not approve any new deployment to the Southeast Asian nation.
“If there had been no trafficking, it would have been easier and come up with a decision sooner. We are hoping that it doesn’t lead to more traffickers, that’s why we cannot allow new deployments,” he said.
In February, the DFA repatriated eight trafficking victims, half of whom were promised jobs in Thailand but were trafficked into working for cryptocurrency scam operations in Myanmar.
In the US State Department’s 2023 Trafficking in Persons (TIP) report, Myanmar was placed under Tier 3, indicating that its government does not fully meet the minimum standards and is not making significant efforts to curb trafficking in the country.
The report also noted that there had been an increase in China-based organized crime syndicates posing as labor brokers that use Myanmar as one location for its “scam factory,” forcing victims to defraud strangers in online cryptocurrency and romance scams. (PNA)