21 April 2014 - Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) officers from the Philippine Embassies and Consulates General in the Middle East and African region gather in Ankara, Turkey this week to participate in the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Regional Workshop on Trafficking in Persons for Foreign Service Posts (FSPs).

The Workshop, which will be held from April 22 to 27, is spearheaded by the DFA's Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers' Affairs (DFA-OUMWA) and the Philippine Embassy in Ankara. It is the first Regional Workshop to be organized in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).  

The Workshop aims to enhance the institutional capacity of the twenty (20) FSPs in the Middle East and Africa to assist Filipinos who are victims of or vulnerable to human trafficking. It is designed to provide ATN Officers with adequate legal, psychological and practical training that will enable them to properly identify situations of trafficking, and render appropriate assistance with due regard to the victims’ rights, safety and special needs.

The resource speakers are drawn from a pool of experts from DFA-OUMWA, UNODC, IOM and the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Justice (DOJ).   

In 2013, Philippine Foreign Service Posts in the Middle East and Africa reported a total of 551 Filipino trafficked victims and 1,835 smuggled migrants – the highest compared to other regions. The region remains the most popular destination for job-seeking Filipinos who are highly vulnerable to exploitation and trafficking.

"This [Workshop] is in line with the third pillar of Philippine Foreign Policy and our country’s international commitment under the United Nations Convention on Transnational Crime and its Protocol on Trafficking in Persons," Foreign Affairs Secretary Albert F. del Rosario said in his pre-recorded message to the participants.

"Trafficking in Persons is considered as a contemporary form of slavery. It is an insidious crime that targets the most vulnerable members of society, robbing them of their inherent dignity. With this workshop, I am confident that we will be able to make great strides in addressing this very important concern," the Secretary concluded. END