Latest Batch of Filipino Human Trafficking Victims from Syria Back Home Safe

PASAY CITY 17 April 2021 — Three (3) Filipina survivors of trafficking and who stayed as wards of the Philippine Embassy shelter in Damascus arrived home safely this afternoon at the NAIA.

Philippine government agencies, led by the Department of Foreign Affairs’ Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers’ Affairs (DFA OUMWA), welcomed the repatriates and briefed them on COVID-19 arrival protocols.

The DFA and other government agencies will also assist the three Filipina victims of human trafficking as they start over a new life in the Philippines.

Representatives from the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration, Department of Social Welfare and Development, Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, Bureau of Immigration as well as the Philippine Coast Guard were likewise present to welcome the three Filipina repatriates from Syria. 

The three trafficking survivors will be assisted in the filing of criminal complaints for violation of the Anti-Human Trafficking in Persons Act under Republic Act 9208 as amended, as well as acts of Illegal Recruitment prohibited under Republic Act 8042 as amended, against the human traffickers who victimized them. 

The DFA, through OUMWA and the Philippine Embassy in Damascus, is using a whole-of-government approach to repatriate, soonest, the remaining Filipinas in the Embassy shelter. END