In Brief: Activists welcome Philippines trafficking progress

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MANILA, 29 June 2011 (IRIN) - Activists in the Philippines have welcomed this week's decision by Washington to remove the country from the Tier 2 Watch list of the US State Department's Trafficking in Persons Report. [ http://www.state.gov/g/tip/rls/tiprpt/2011/index.htm ] "It is truly a relief. A consistent collaborative effort across all government agencies is needed to ensure that we stay off the watch list," Ruby Ramores, a programme officer for the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking, [ http://www.doj.gov.ph/index.php?id1=4&id2=7 ] told IRIN. "Within just one year, there were 25 trafficking convictions. This is more than the total number of convictions in the past seven years," said Cecilia Flores-Oebanda, executive director of the Visayan Forum, [ http://www.visayanforum.org/portal/ ] an anti-trafficking NGO, said citing government efforts to deal with trafficking cases within 180 days of arrest. For the past two years, the Philippines was on the Tier 2 watch list, meaning it had failed to show evidence of trying to meet minimum standards set out in the internationally recognized Trafficking Victims Protection Act. [ http://www.state.gov/g/tip/laws/ ] Another watch list rating might have meant the withdrawal of millions of dollars in non-humanitarian US aid. as/ds/cb � IRIN. All rights reserved. More humanitarian news and analysis: http://www.IRINnews.org