BY: LEANDRIA P. PAGUNSAN
DUMAGUETE CITY, June 5 (PIA) -- The Visayan Forum in Negros Oriental campaigns for support and commitment to eliminate human trafficking and modern day slavery in Negros Oriental through iFight.
iFight is a platform for individuals and institutions to become fighters against human trafficking.
Romulado Seneris, Policy Officer of Visayan Forum Foundation, Inc. in a joint meeting with the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) at Bethel GuestHouse last week bared that Negros Oriental is identified as one of the transit points for illegal recruitment activities and even drug smuggling.
Seneris scored on the top three international crimes which are: proliferation of illegal drugs, arms smuggling and human trafficking.
iFight campaigns for awareness and enlists commitment from people for concrete and practical actions to knock out human trafficking and other forms of criminality towards a walk free Philippines.
Visayan Forum has four regional teams, Bacolod, Zamboanga, Davao and Dumaguete. They have one shelter/home in the National Capital Region (NCR) which was donated by best selling author of Harry Potter series JK Rowling, according to Seneris.
The shelter in NCR can house a maximum of 100 victims and is highly safe and secured. Victims usually come from the vulnerable communities such as disaster hit areas, post conflict areas and most especially indigenous people which usually are the target of recruiters.
According to Seneris, among the push factors for human trafficking are poverty, lack of education, unemployment, lack of access to information and dysfunctional families.
Seneris added that Negros Oriental is one of the sources of labor migration and domestic helpers that become up victims of slavery.
Raising awareness for iFight campaign will push through in Dumaguete City in June which include workshops, contests, gigs by local musicians and other art activities. (mbcn/lpp/PIA-7/NegOr with reports from Ina Isabelle A.Taburaza, intern)