COTABATO CITY, Philippines (Mindanao Examiner / Nov. 23, 2008) - The massive dislocation of families due to the raging armed conflict in Mindanao has spurred the trafficking of children, Cotabato Rep. Emmylou Mendoza 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," Mendoza said in a statement.
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," 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," Mendoza said.
She said unrelated adults chaperoning traveling youngsters should be checked, and their identities should be recorded and verified.
A leading non-government group closely monitoring human trafficking in the country has corroborated 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.
The Visayan Forum works for the welfare of trafficked women and children as well as marginalized migrants, especially those employed in the invisible and informal sectors, like domestic helpers. The foundation runs two shelters in Davao City.
Since 2001, the foundation has rescued and aided more than 32,000 victims and potential victims of trafficking, and has assisted in the filing of 66 criminal cases on behalf of 166 victims.
According to the National Disaster Coordinating Council, since August, more than 600,000 civilians, including over 40,000 children, have been displaced as a result of military-rebel clashes and armed incursions by wayward Moro Islamic Liberation Front factions across three regions in Mindanao.
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.
Since August, the fighting in Northern Mindanao, the provinces of South Cotabato, Sarangani and the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao also caused more than P1.2 billion-worth of damage to farms and fisheries, industries and public infrastructure.
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