Jean Enriquez, executive director of Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW-Asia Pacific), whose day job naturally includes putting pimps behind bars was brought to tears several times during this interview.  

But just as Jean herself says, and as I was about to discover, such is the power of feminist conversations.  

The first tears come when I ask Jean to tell me about herself.  

“That’s such an open-ended question”, Jean says, stumped. “Where do I even begin to answer that?”  

“Just tell me the first thing that comes to mind,” I say, encouragingly.  

“Single mother”, she says and her eyes turn misty. “I’m really proud of my 20 year-old daughter, Janica. Though I never really imposed my convictions on her, she is growing up to be quite a feminist herself. She feels deeply about the discrimination against the LGBT (lesbian, gay, bi-sexual and transgender) community and Muslim people. I was very surprised to see how sharp and precise her analyses are.” Jean says, proudly.  

The early onset of feminist activism seems to run in the family as Jean’s own brand of activism, also started at an early age.  

“When I was in 13, I was already speaking against the Marcos Administration at the rallies in Mendiola. I knew no fear — maybe because I was very idealistic. People were awed and listened to me and what I had to say.” says Jean.  

What Jean calls her ‘feminist awakening’ came later in university.  

“The other political ideologies that I read about were not relatable. When I read about feminism, it was holistic. It took up issues like relationships, which at that young age preoccupied me. I began to understand the power play between men and women.”, says Jean who also admits that the writings of feminism became particularly poignant at this time because she started engaging in casual relationships of her own.  

“I got involved in relationships without emotions. I went bed-hopping thinking that it would empower me. I only felt I was beautiful when I was sexually active.”, Jean shares, slightly shuddering at the memory.  

“You think you are so beautiful because you’re wanted, when really, you feel like a rug that is being used. You come to realize that even if you are intelligent, educated and respectable, there is no difference between you and a paid woman.”  

“I got pregnant when I was 20 and got married. I was irresponsible and thought having a child by him was love. It turned out to be a violent and abusive relationship which I eventually left.”  

Jean shares this experience of confusion, experimentation and resilience at youth camps the CATW – AP holds. “I don’t want them [the youth] to go through that. I believe that feminism is about empowering ourselves and re-building the self esteem that has been eroded by the media, by men and even by other women.”  

The complexities of sex trafficking  

Throughout her academic life and NGO career, Jean has been on the forefront of cutting edge women’s issues like reproductive health and later on, sex trafficking.  

Tracing this back, Jean says that it was in 1998 when she first became exposed to how women become vulnerable to sex trafficking because their fishing grounds or farms were converted into resorts or malls. “In the mining lands of Western Mindanao, they were being forced to sell their land. They were displaced and for lack of other means, they allowed themselves to be trafficked into prostitution. It is very sad, but within the small mining community, the girls are sold to the miners and the developers.” she says.  

“Sex trafficking is a complex issue which is linked to other issues like economics, poverty, and development. Muslim girls who have fallen victim to sex trafficking are highly stigmatized and sometimes forced to remain silence to save their family honor.”  

“This issue is close to my heart because it deals with the marginalized women in society. The victims are often made to be invisible. Until now, there are not many focused on this issue.” Jean says, and her voice catches in her throat. “Each cases of rape, of incest, of sex trafficking affects me.”  

Tireless, relentless  

 After more than two decades, Jean remains relentless in the fight for women’s rights. CATW-AP, under Jean’s leadership, was one of the women’s groups that were instrumental in the passage of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Law in 2003. Currently, CATW-AP is lobbying for the passage of the Anti-Prostitution Law which de-criminalizes prostitutes, but will prosecute buyers and sellers. 

“Don’t you ever get tired?” I ask her.  

Jean does not hesitate before answering.  

“You know, we conduct trainings on violence against women for men. Some of the men, when they come in appear to be really cocky and arrogant. At the end of the training, you can see their illumination and new found conviction. Some even become peer educators themselves. Isn’t that so energizing? How do you quantify the women we have rescued thanking us for making such a difference in their life? When you see that your work can have that kind of effect on people, will you even think about the need to rest?” The rhetorical questions are answered, even before they are asked.

Jean removes her glasses to wipe away fresh tears. “I will not ever get tired of that.” Jean says, with a quiet conviction in her voice.  

And such is the power of the feminist conversation. Its empathy connects one woman to another regardless of superficial differences like age and background; its infinite tenderness softens the heart of even the hardest man; and its power inspires, nurtures and heals all those whom it touches.  

        

Sally, now 23, talks about the harrowing experience of being deceived by her sister in law and hiding from her estranged family for the last 3 years.

“My sister in law had been coming back and forth from Singapore for the last couple of years and was making a good living so I thought it would be fine.  I first sensed something was wrong when I saw my visa was a tourist one valid only for a few days. My sister in law said it was normal to do that and we would just extend the visa in Singapore.

I was surprised to find that once we got to Singapore, my first stop was a bar.  The manager’s only question was if I drank a lot. I had never had an alcoholic beverage in my life. This angered the bar owner who said that I could not work there because I would never make a lot of money or sit with customers for very long.

My sister in law was very mad at me. She insisted that I knew what I was getting myself into and that we had talked about “this” in Manila. I was still confused about what she meant by “this”, but I swore to her that I thought I would be working in a restaurant as a waitress, not in a bar where drinking was necessary. She wouldn’t hear of it and called me names like “stupid” and “bobo”.

Her boyfriend, who is a pilot of a commercial airline came up with a solution. He told her that they could offer me to one of his colleagues who was also a pilot. His colleague was old, unmarried and would be interested.

We went to his apartment and I overhead them negotiating for USD 2,000 because I was a virgin.

I finally realized what was going on.

I begged and pleaded with my sister in law not to leave alone with the big white man. I was again subjected to a barrage of insults about how I was wasting an opportunity and how stupid I was. My sister in law told me that when I got a boyfriend for myself, I would give it up anyway. I might as well do it now and even get paid for it.

I was scared.  I had never been out of the country and here I was in a foreign country where the only person I knew was trying to sell me.  At first, I gave in and said I would try.

But when my sister in law and her boyfriend prepared to leave, I was overwhelmed with fear. I didn’t know what the man was going to do to me. I thought he was going to kill me.

I really put up a fight by just crying in a corner and refusing to go anywhere. My sister in law was even more furious, but in the end, they didn’t force me. 

My sister in law told me that she had no use for me and would just send me back to the Philippines. She threatened to stop supporting my sister and her children if I told them what happened.

I was immediately brought back to the airport the next day. Actually, I was dropped off at the corner near the airport with Php500 in my pocket. I had no idea where to go. Good thing I found another Filipina and asked her for directions. She was also going to the airport so she guided me.

In the Philippines, my sister also told me that I was stupid for wasting this opportunity. She was furious that because of me, she lost face with the family of her husband. I endured all of this and just stayed quiet.

I was forced to work as waitress in a canteen my sister in law owned earning P1,700 a month. But I never saw any of this money. The money was collected by the manager, who was also a relative, to pay back for my airfare and other expenses incurred in Singapore.

I was finally able to get away, and found a shelter for women.  I have been hiding for the last 2 years. I am now part of a group called Bagong Kamalayaan Collective, Inc (BKCI) a group of women who have survived trafficking.  Being with women who know what I have been through has been healing.

With the help of Coalition Against Trafficking in Women (CATW-AP), BKCI is getting ready to put up a bakery cooperative for its members.

Now I work during the day and am studying Psychology at night in an all-girl’s university. I hope to give back by using my degree to counsel other women who have gone through a similar experience.  On weekends, I take baking lessons in preparation for the opening of our bakery.

My sister in law insisted that I was being weak and stupid for not taking advantage of the “opportunity” she presented to me. I now know that refusing to be sold off and standing my ground was the braver and smarter thing to do.”

Human trafficking is a global problem. The United Nations estimates that 12.3 million individuals live in forced labor worldwide, and about 70 percent of them are women or girls trafficked into sex slavery. Human trafficking is the world’s third largest black market industry after weapons and drugs.  The number of trafficked individuals outside and within the Philippines is in the hundreds of thousands.

It is usual for traffickers to be friends, neighbors or family members. Says Kip Oebanda, Development Specialist of Visayan Forum Foundation (VFF), an NGO that provides shelter for trafficking victims, “The trafficker’s commodity is really trust. That’s what they are selling. For someone to uproot themselves and go off to a far away land, you have to trust them.”

Trafficking can be stopped even if the trafficked persons are in transit. They can be seen in airports, seaports, the RO-RO (roll-on, roll-off transport system). Traffickers and their victims usually do not to talk to anyone, are usually in groups and don’t know where they are going. Children and teens are told to pretend like adults when they are clearly not.

Report suspected trafficking cases to the Philippine Ports Authority, the Coast Guard or to the Visayan Forum hotlines (632)709-0711 / (632)709-0573.

•  Log onto www.catw-ap.org for more information about trafficking.
• Photos courtesy of Mitch Maurico

        

Photo by Mitch Mauricio

Human trafficking is an organized, international crime.

It happens when a recruiter illegally employs people, transfers them to another place where the “trafficked” people will actually be signed up to do forced labor, become prostitutes or slaves, or have their organs removed and sold.

The Anti-trafficking in Persons Act of 2003 or Republic Act 9208 formally defines trafficking as “the recruitment, transfer or harboring of persons with or without the victim’s consent or knowledge, within or across national borders by means of threat or abduction, for the purpose of exploitation.”

Under RA 9208, the scenarios that would constitute as exploitation include:  forced labor and slavery, prostitution, sexual exploitation, sex tourism and debt bondage.

Philippine standing

The 2006 US Department of State Human Rights Report estimated the number of trafficking victims in the Philippines to be between 20,000 to 100,000. The large disparity may be attributed to the fact that there are no official records on the number of persons trafficked.

In 2007, the US Department of State gave Philippines a Tier 2 standing.  As a Tier 2 country, the Philippine government is recognized as making significant efforts to meet the minimum standards of the international treaty Trafficking Victims Protection Act.

However, according to the Trafficking in Persons report of 2009, the US Department of State demoted the Philippines to Tier 2 Watch List.

Being on the Tier 2 Watch List means that the number of victims increased significantly and that there is a failure to provide evidence of increasing efforts to combat this crime such as investigations, assistance to victims and convictions of known traffickers.

“The government did not show evidence of progress in convicting trafficking offenders, particularly those responsible for labor trafficking,” stated the report.

In 2009, 6 years after the passage of RA 9208, there have been only 11 convictions.

Women and girls most vulnerable

Filipinas, sometimes as young as 11, are usually trafficked abroad for commercial sexual exploitation are sent primarily to Hong Kong, Japan, Malaysia, Singapore, South Korea, countries in Africa, the Middle East and Western Europe.

The human trafficking chain has become so complex that it not only involves the exportation of individuals from the Philippines, but also their importation into the Philippines.

There have been accounts of women trafficked from China, Russia, South Korea, and Eastern Europe to the Philippines for commercial sexual exploitation.

The Philippines, because of its strategic location, is also now being used as a “hub” or a port of international crime syndicates. Trafficked persons from mainland China are transported through the Philippines to third country destinations.

Photo by Mitch Mauricio

Caring for survivors

Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. (VFF)is a non-government organization who cares for victims by providing them shelter where the survivors could stay and wait until they are ready to go back home.

Kip Oebanda, an official  at VFF says, “Women and children are also trafficked within the country. They are usually from “poor farming communities in the Visayas and Mindanao” who are sent to urban areas such as Manila, Cebu City and some cities in Mindanao. These people are then used for commercial sexual exploitation or forced labor as domestic servants or factory workers.

During their stay in the VFF shelter, the victims learn information technology skills and life skills.

Those who want to go home right away are given tickets by VFF’s partners in those places. There are also others who want to press charges against their employers, said Oebanda.

Though trafficking may seem like a distant reality, Oebanda said that it can happen right under our noses. “Some people are recruited even in schools,” he said, stressing that teachers or elders in the communities are the usual head-hunters.

“It’s usually people you trust,” Oebanda said. “Sometimes they delude themselves that they are helping, but more often than not, they are part of a larger syndicate.”

Some are fortunate enough to survive. These are the ones who escape from their employers or are intercepted while in transit.

Need for more opportunities

Oebanda noted that having more opportunities for people in their own provinces will lessen the temptation for those desperate to explore possibilities abroad or in urbanized cities; a desperation that makes them precisely vulnerable to trafficking.

VFF set up 13 community technology learning centers (CTLCs) in Manila, Cebu, Daet, Bacolod, Dumaguete and Davao for a project called Stop Trafficking and Exploitation of People through Unlimited Potential or STEP-UP. With the program, people are taught computer skills and are later given Microsoft diplomas that they can use to get employment or continue their education.

Oebanda said that “It’s not bad to migrate, as long as it’s safe migration.”

• by Nicai de Guzman
  

Starting today, until the end of March, Sex and Sensibilities will post  various feature articles on the many aspects of sex trafficking.

        

Photo attributed to www.hivplusmag.com

Sex-trafficked women and girls in South East Asia, majority of whom are under 17 years old, are at substantial risk of sexually transmitted infections including HIV, according to an independent regional research study by the Harvard School of Public and the United Nations Development Programme.

This study was presented at the International Conference on AIDS in Asia and the Pacific (ICAAP9) in Bali, Indonesia last August 2009.

Entitled, “Sex Trafficking and STI/HIV in Southeast Asia:  Connections between Sexual Exploitation, Violence and Sexual Risk”, the study compiled and analyzed data from sex trafficking survivors in Cambodia and Indonesia. In Thailand, a national survey of female sex workers was conducted.

The study states that girls who are trafficked into sex work are at higher levels of sexual risk compared to non-trafficked sex workers, and are less likely to be reached by HIV prevention programs.

A serious problem with scarce data

An estimated 250,000 young women and girls within the Southeast Asia region, are trafficked for purposes of sexual exploitation each year.

Lured with false promises of economic opportunities, travel or marriage, these young women are an easy target for sex traffickers who subsequently exploit and sell them. Cambodia, Indonesia and Thailand were noted as source, transit and destination countries for these sex trafficked women and girls.

However, experts admit that data on the relationship between sex trafficked women and STI/HIV is scarce.

The study notes the following reasons for the limited information: recent recognition of the topic given its criminal nature and the fact that sex trafficked women represent a “hidden” population who are excluded from programs, surveillance and research regarding HIV and sexual risk among sex workers.

Too young

In Thailand, 10.4% of the sample surveyed in the study were under the age of 18. Inappropriate use and or non – use of condoms was prevalent; 22.4% of trafficked women reported condom failure, compared to 12.4% of non-trafficked FSWs. Anal sex was three times as common among sex trafficked workers.

In Indonesia, 46.5% of sex trafficking survivors were under the age of 18 at the time of recruitment. The prevalence of HIV went up to 19.4% among those trafficked for sexual exploitation for one year or more.

In Cambodia, 52.2% of sex trafficked females were under the age of 17 at the time of trafficking. Majority, or 73.4% of all survivors sampled tested positively for STIs.

In all three countries, women who were trafficked were far less knowledgable about HIV transmission and the means by which they could protect themselves against infection.

Hakan Bjorkman, Country Director of UNDP Indonesia says, “Women in the sex industry are already highly at risk for HIV. But women who are sex trafficked experience even more extreme levels of HIV risk, abuse and violence.”

Being sold and re-sold

The high mobility of sex trafficked women to avoid police/NGO detection poses another difficulty in tracking and monitoring this group. Girls are shuttled around different work areas and re-packaged as virgins to a new male clientele who will pay a premium for a virgin.

Their movement from low incidence areas to epi-centers of the epidemic is considered to be a factor in the persistence of HIV in the Southeast Asian region.

Sexual violence and initiation

Sex trafficked women were also shown to be three times as likely to experience violence as prior initiation to sex work. Such physical trauma in young girls with immature reproductive tracts poses a number of risks for HIV infection. Being coerced to have sex with additional men prior to healing of wounds from this initial sexual assault, exacerbates the heightened vulnerability to HIV.

“This work further confirms the high risks for HIV infection faced by those forced into sex work. To confront the reality, anti-trafficking and HIV prevention professionals must work together to develop programs that can both reduce HIV risk among all those involved in sex work and assist women and girls trapped in these settings.” says Dr. Jay Silverman, Director of Violence Women Prevention Research at the Harvard School of Public Health and lead author of the study.

The group called for the reduction in demand for trafficking victims by men, the root cause of sex trafficking, by shifting gender-based norms and attitudes about the trafficking and control of women.