The innovative and inclusive efforts of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to fight human trafficking must be laudable, said the Commission on Human Rights (CHR), as it congratulated the concerned agencies.
CHR executive director Jacqueline de Guia said the inter-agency collaboration and partnership with non-government organizations have helped in crafting effective mechanisms to push various
anti-trafficking initiatives.
De Guia cited the prevailing Covid-19 pandemic and its socio-economic implications that made many individuals vulnerable to human trafficking.
Hence, it is crucial that the most affected sectors rely on the government to protect against abuses and exploitation.
“CHR also underscores that the anti-trafficking aspects that require stronger actions particularly the need to prosecute and convict more traffickers and holding to account officials allegedly complicit in trafficking crimes,” De Guia said.
The IACAT, chaired by the Department of Justice and co-chaired by the Department of Social Welfare and Development, is composed of 12 members including the Department of Foreign Affairs, Philippine National Police, Department of Labor and Employment, Department of the Interior and Local Government, Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, Bureau of Immigration, Philippine Commission on Women, Commission on Filipinos Overseas, Philippine Center for Transnational Crimes, Coalition Against Trafficking In Women — the Asia Pacific, Blas F. Ople Policy Center and Training Institute and the International Justice Mission.