GENERAL SANTOS CITY (MindaNews / 16 March) – Two female minors from Maguindanao del Sur have been rescued from the claws of human traffickers and are now safely reunited with their families, officials of the Ministry of Social Services and Development (MSSD) confirmed Monday, 16 March.
Jidday Lucman, MSSD information officer, said the human trafficking victims were reunited with their respective families in Talayan and Shariff Saydona Mustafa towns Thursday last week.
The two minors, both 17 years old, were offloaded while attempting to separately leave the country to work as domestic workers, she said.
The first one tried to leave on February 21 and the other on February 24, both bound for Saudi Arabia, Lucman said.
Aside from their visibly young appearance, immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport stopped them from travelling due to spurious documents they presented, she added.
The duo was given shelter at the Tahanan ng Inyong Pag-Asa (TIP) Center in Mandaluyong City until they went home last Thursday.
She said that the MSSD’s Recovery and Reintegration Program for Trafficked Persons (RRPTP) unit coordinated with the concerned agencies in Metro Manila to formally facilitate the turnover of the minors for their reintegration process.
Lucman said the MSSD team conducted a case conference with representatives from the Department of Social Welfare and Development–National Capital Region (DSWD-NCR), the Department of Justice–Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (DOJ-IACAT), and TIP Center personnel to ensure proper case management and protection services for the victims.
Jan Michella Agata, MSSD-RRPTP focal person, the recruitment of minors for overseas domestic work is a violation of Republic Act (RA) 11862 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2022.
Under the RA 11862, applicants for household service work abroad must be at least 24 years old.
“The minors we rescued came from separate incidents of illegal recruitment. Recruiting minors for employment (abroad) is a clear violation of the law,” Agata said.
She noted that the ministry remains committed to ensuring the welfare and recovery of human trafficking victims through coordinated interventions and reintegration support.
“Our priority is to ensure the safe reintegration of victim-survivors into their families and communities. Through RRPTP, we facilitate aftercare services and coordinate closely with partner agencies to ensure that survivors receive the necessary support as they rebuild their lives,” Agata said.
As part of the reintegration process, the MSSD will assist the families of the survivors, including livelihood support, educational assistance, and other necessary interventions such as legal assistance based on the assessed needs of the households, she said.
The ministry will also continue to collaborate with concerned agencies in strengthening case build-up and the filing of charges against those responsible for the illegal recruitment and trafficking attempt. (Bong S. Sarmiento / MindaNews)
