By Ina Reformina, ABS-CBN News

MANILA – Government is bent on preventing survivors of super typhoon “Yolanda” from being lured into being illegally recruited or trafficked for “exploitative purposes.”

 

In a statement, Justice Secretary and Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) chairperson Leila De Lima said that “this is part of the overarching campaign of the [IACAT] to prevent all human trafficking and illegal recruitment activities in the calamity-affected areas, exit and entry points of evacuees or survivors, in the various evacuation and survivor processing centers.”

The campaign is not limited to “Yolanda” survivors, but also those in the Visayas area recently hit by a 7.2-magnitude earthquake.

“[A]mid the devastation caused by the earthquake in Central Visayas and Typhoon Yolanda, an IACAT Task Force is putting in place all necessary coordination mechanisms and protocols to further bolster the existing anti-human trafficking strategies in view of the heightened vulnerability of survivors from the affected areas,” the statement read.

The Task Force will be composed of representatives from IACAT member agencies and partners such as the Department of Social Welfare and Development, Department of Labor and Employment, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Philippine National Police, National Bureau of Investigation, Council for the Welfare of Children, and the Commission on Filipino Overseas.

The Task Force will also closely work with the Philippine Air Force, Philippine Ports Authority, Bureau of Immigration, local government units, civil society organizations, non-government organizations, and international humanitarian organizations.