MANY governments are still in denial about people being trafficked and, worse, neglect to report or prosecute cases of modern slavery, the United Nations on Drugs and Crime said. “Many criminal justice systems belittle the seriousness of this crime,” said UNODC Executive Director Antonio Maria Costa at the Feb. 12 worldwide launching the Global Report
THE U.S. State Department is urging the Philippine government to improve its record of prosecuting, convicting and punishing human traffickers. The State Department said in its “2008 Trafficking in Persons Report” released last month that while the Philippines demonstrated “exemplary efforts” to prevent cross-border trafficking and protect victims, it “demonstrated weak efforts to prosecute trafficking
A BATANGAS court sentenced to life imprisonment on June 30 a woman who had recruited two minors with the intention of making them sex workers in Puerto Galera, in what antitrafficking NGOs hailed as a “landmark conviction.” Judge Florencio Arellano also ordered the female trafficker to pay P2 million in fine and P50,000 in moral