By Danielle Deloria and Anne Marxze D. Umil 
Bulatlat.com

MANILA — Deceived, abused, exploited and neglected. 

This is what victims of human trafficking encountered in the hands of their employer in Cambodia. They decried injustice and lamented the lack of urgency of the Philippine government to act on their condition. 

The victims narrated in a press conference July 19 that they were lured by their recruiters in the Philippines with call center jobs once they got to Cambodia. But when they reached the country, they were brought to a large, secluded and guarded building complex in the northern part of Cambodia, together with other trafficked foreign nationals. Here, they were forced to court, phish and fraud fellow Filipinos online under strict quotas and threats of physical abuse.

The torment 

The call center job they were offered  turned out to be an online scam operation.They said they were coerced into targeting and scamming fellow Filipinos by making them fall in love with them online. If they did not comply with the company’s rules and quotas, they were punished and even sold to another company.

Their cellphones were confiscated in the compound where they worked, leaving them unable to contact their families in the Philippines. 

Psy, not his real name, said their salaries are lower than what was promised to them. “When I asked the HR (Human Resources department), I was told, ‘‘You should just follow everything that we will ask you to do’,” he said in Filipino, they were covered with masks to hide their identity for security. He said their team leader, a Chinese, would instruct them to edit Facebook accounts and target their victims. 

“They want us to target Filipinos who have been in the United States for 20 years, and we should make them fall in love with us. If we are not able to do that, that is when they start to physically abuse us,” he added. 

With the help of other employees, the victims were able to seek the help of the Philippine Embassy in Cambodia, but they were caught by their employers. 

“Then they took us to what seemed to be a detention cell where we were held for a day without food or anything. The next day, the police got us out of detention and took us to prison. We were confused because we were requesting for rescue but the police came instead,” said Adi, adding that they stayed in prison for two months. 

Brent on the other hand shared that he was targeted because he refused to scam people online. 

“I didn’t expect that my work would be scamming people. So when I wasn’t making any money, the company decided to sell me to another company. When everything was settled, they began transferring me to that company. That’s when I made a decision to escape,” he said.

Brent successfully escaped from the hands of the traffickers. Luckily, another Filipino migrant helped him and brought him to the Philippine embassy. 

Dennis was detained in Cambodia. He witnessed how other employees from different countries were tortured when they expressed that they wanted to come home. “Our boss refused. Then they were brought to a ‘black room’ where they were tortured and electrocuted,” he said. 

He also said that their salaries were deducted for simple violations like being sleepy on the job. “I was only able to get an $88 salary. When you get sick, you will no longer receive the $300 for complete attendance. You will also pay for the expenses in the clinic,” he added.  

Another victim, Justin, recounted his ordeal after his boss discovered that they had requested rescue from the Philippine Embassy. “It was May 4, our boss took me inside the room and threatened to kill me if I would not admit who called the embassy. He told me to take off my clothes. I really thought that I would be electrocuted. When they did not get any information from me, that’s when they took me to detention,” he said.

Inside the jail, they were not able to get any food because they needed to buy it on their own. “We do not have any money; how will we eat?” Justin said in Filipino. 

They contacted the Philippine Embassy in Cambodia to request food and water assistance; although the embassy responded, assistance did not arrive until three days later. 

Slow government response 

Ferdie, whose son is a victim of human trafficking, also called on the government to act swiftly on the case of his son who is still detained in Cambodia. Although they have contacted the Department of Migrant Workers, he said they have yet to receive an update regarding their efforts to repatriate the Filipino victims back to the Philippines. 

“My son said until now no one from the officials of the Philippine Embassy in Cambodia had visited them. Their presence is important, especially when the victims are distressed,” he said in Filipino. 

One of the hardships his son endured inside prison is the lack of money to buy food. 

Meanwhile, Justin lamented the lack of support from the government when they were going back to the Philippines saying that they were not provided any food or water the whole flight. He said that when they reached Hanoi, Vietnam, they met a representative from the Philippine Embassy, and they were just advised to buy food. But when the victims raised that they did not have any money with them, they were told to wait, but they have already reached the Philippines, and no food had been provided to them. 

Dennis meanwhile lamented that they were in handcuffs when they were brought to the airport for repatriation. “I don’t know why, we don’t have the intention to escape, we just want to come home,” he said.

When the victims arrived in the Philippines, no government agency came to meet them. Justin had to ask for assistance from a police officer in the airport who took them to the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration desk where they reported that they were victims of human trafficking. 

“We are asking for some assistance because we worked for three months without receiving any income,” Justin said. 

They are appealing for financial support and medical assistance from the trauma and abuses they received from the trafficking. Although they were asked by the government if they needed a medical check-up, no medical assistance has been provided even after returning to the Philippines, including him. 

‘Resolve labor trafficking cases’

Former Gabriela Women’s Party representative Liza Maza questioned the government’s action towards the labor trafficking cases of the Filipinos abroad. 

She said that Filipinos are victimized three times – first, victims of poverty due to low salary and lack of benefits among others. Second, victims of their recruiters, and third, victims of the government’s negligence of their duty and its labor export program. 

“We also heard from them that an immigration officer is involved in this scheme. So there is a direct involvement of the government in this scheme,” Maza said, adding that there is the same scheme in Iloilo. 

Maza, also president of the Makabayan bloc,  expressed the coalition’s readiness to initiate an investigation into the possible involvement of government officials and immigration authorities. She also said that it is important to identify those responsible.

According to Migrante, victims who were recruited in the Philippines were instructed to fly only when certain immigration officers were on duty. They added that traffickers used connecting flights through Hong Kong, Vietnam, or Bangkok to Cambodia. 

Joanna Concepcion, chairperson of Migrante International, said that the Filipino trafficking victims in Cambodia were able to come home because of the persistent efforts and constant follow-ups of their families with various government agencies. Concepcion criticized the government’s process of providing assistance to the victims and how it delayed their return to the Philippines. 

Concepcion said that the government’s lack of urgency and assistance to the human trafficking cases is unacceptable. She said that there are hundreds of labor trafficking victims who reached out to them, yet the government seems to not do anything about it. She also said that it is clear that there was a failure to assert to the Cambodian government that Filipino migrant workers are victims. As a result, Filipino trafficking victims remained detained for an extended period despite having no charges filed against them. There was no legal basis for their imprisonment in Cambodia. 

In the fourth State of the Nation Address (SONA) of Marcos Jr., Concepcion hopes that he will take the time to address the ongoing cases of human trafficking affecting the Filipino migrant workers. 

According to Philippine Statistics Authority (PSA) there are an estimated 2.15 million Filipinos who are working abroad. This number increased by 9.8 percent from the 2022 estimated number of 1.96 million. Progressive groups criticized the labor export policy of the government, saying that the lack of job opportunities, decent wages, lack of land to till in the rural areas are pushing ordinary Filipinos to work overseas. (RVO)