Information service of the Pontifical Mission Societies since 1927
Manila (Agenzia Fides) - In the vast phenomenon of human mobility besides legal migration regulated by international law, a phenomenon of human trafficking which causes great suffering to hundreds of thousands of people also exists. The Catholic Church dedicated the 14 January to concern for Migrants and Refugees and Fides spoke on the subject with Italian Scalabrini Missionary Fr. Fabio Baggio at the Scalabrini Migration Centre in Manila who organises international seminars on the question and promotes formation for men and women involved in pastoral care for migrants and refugees .
Fr Baggio says the flow of emigrants from the Philippines to the rest of the world continues to grow involving about 10% of the country’s population, at a rate of about 800,000 more every year. The trouble is it nourishes a parallel racket of human trafficking run by gangs of organised criminals.
Fr Biaggio says “Illegal emigration is consistent and appears to represent a valid alternative to official paths and it is free of ethical judgement. The dynamics of this emigration lead inevitably to the phenomenon of human trafficking in the Philippines, the vastness of which is still to be properly assessed. Illegal migration, organised crime and human trafficking would appear to prosper seeing the frequent cases proposed for international attention”.
Explaining that the causes behind this phenomenon are poverty, scarcity of natural resources, growing unemployment, absence of future prospects Fr Baggio recalls that mass emigration was adopted by the Philippines government as a major strategy for national development”. In the attempt to create greater opportunities overseas, “broad scope was given to private enterprises in the sector” and this made room for the criminal aspects of the phenomenon and a flourishing of illegal agencies operating in the field of black market emigration perpetrating abuse and exploitation. Emigration and its degenerating into human trafficking are an important pastoral challenge for the Church in the third millennium. (PA) (Agenzia Fides 16/1/2007 righe 28 parole 289)
