21 September 2014 - The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA), in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), is set to conduct the second Regional Workshop on Anti-Trafficking in Persons (TIP) from September 22 to 26 in Mexico City, Mexico.
Around 30 Assistance-to-Nationals (ATN) officers and staff from 13 Philippine Foreign Service Posts (FSPs) in Argentina, Brazil, Canada, Chile, Mexico and the US will participate in the Workshop. The Regional Workshops are designed to provide ATN personnel with adequate legal, psychological and practical training that will enable them to properly identify situations of trafficking, render appropriate assistance with due regard to the victims’ rights, safety and special needs, effectively advocate anti-TIP measures in their respective regions and host countries and assist in the prosecution of traffickers.
"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.
"This second Regional Workshop comes on the heels of the success of the Workshop for the Posts in the Middle East and Africa, which was held last April. It is important to bring this training program to other regions such as the Americas in order to ensure that the DFA continues to enhance protection to the significant number of Filipinos who are vulnerable to being trafficked overseas," the Secretary added.
In 2013, the FSPs assisted a total of 2,947 Filipino TIP and illegal recruitment victims worldwide. Of this number, 432 were assisted by FSPs in the Americas.
The resource speakers are drawn from a rich pool of experts from the UNODC, DFA-Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs, DFA-Office of Personnel and Administrative Services, the Philippine Embassy in Mexico, member agencies of the Philippine Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking (IACAT) such as the Department of Justice (DOJ), Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) and Department of Labor and Employment (DOLE), and other relevant international and local organizations.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Jesus I. Yabes, further stressed the importance of conducting the Regional Workshops, stating that TIP "has victimized thousands of our kababayans and introduced new dimensions to the fulfillment of our mandate, ranging from creative diplomatic engagements to proper documentation of trafficking cases and trauma alleviation. It is, therefore, incumbent upon the DFA to ensure that our Posts, as the first responders, develop the capacities necessary to fight human trafficking and address the immediate needs of the victims."
The first DFA Regional Workshop on Anti-Trafficking in Persons, which took place from April 22 to 27 in Ankara, Turkey, benefited the Philippine Embassies and Consulates General in the Middle East and Africa. The next Regional Workshops will be organized for FSPs in the Asia-Pacific and Europe. END