29 April 2014 - Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs Jesus I. Yabes and his Turkish counterpart, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Ali Naci Koru, met on April 25 at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Turkey to update each other on the policy and operational efforts exerted by the Philippines and Turkey to address the incidence of human trafficking.

The Meeting took place while the Undersecretary was in Ankara, Turkey to chair the DFA Regional Workshop on Trafficking in Persons for Posts in the Middle East and Africa, in partnership with the United Nations Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC) and the International Organization for Migration (IOM).

Undersecretary Yabes informed Deputy Minister Koru of the salient points of the amended Philippine Anti-Trafficking Law. He also noted the many opportunities for bilateral collaboration, particularly on anti-trafficking in persons initiatives, when Turkey assumes the chairmanship of the Global Forum on Migration and Development (GFMD) in 2015. The GFMD "is a voluntary, informal, non-binding and government-led process open to all States Members and Observers of the United Nations, to advance understanding and cooperation on the mutually reinforcing relationship between migration and development and to foster practical and action-oriented outcomes."

With regard to bilateral economic ties, both officials likewise discussed the possible launching of direct flights between their two countries in the third quarter of 2014. END