The Philippine Council of Evangelical Churches (PCEC) invited Dann to present some facts about human trafficking in Mindanao.
With the help of our research team and some of our connections with the military, we were able to gather the following:
- Of the 1,000,000 college graduates annually, only 5-10% are employed in jobs consistent to their course, and only 30-40% will find any employment. The vast majority of graduates will remain unemployed. Guess who’s going to seduce the more than 500,000 jobless Filipinos we’re producing every year?
- Most of the victims of human trafficking come from the porous borders of Mindanao. In a study by Lila Ramos Shalani, Department of Education, she interviewed 2,759 randomly selected households from 231 barangays in five provinces – Lanao del Sur and Maguindanao in ARMM, Lanao del Norte, North Cotabato, and Sultan Kudarat from November to December 2010. The study showed that more than 40 percent of families in Central Mindanao had been displaced from 2000-2010 due to violent conflict in the area. One in ten families had been displaced five times or more. Many of the trafficking cases happen from Central Mindanao.
- Last June 13, 2012, Naval forces have intercepted a motor launch with 184 victims of human trafickking. Lt. Col. Erwin A. Alea, commander of the 4th Civil Relations Group, said troops from the Western Mindanao naval force captured the vessel seven kilometers off the coastal village of Ayala in Zamboanga City. The motor launch was heading towards the direction of Sabah, Malaysia with undocumented victims mostly women.
How do we connect unemployment, armed-conflicts, and human trafficking?
