N

Manila Philippines

Davao

Iloilo

TRACKING THE TRAFFICKED How a referral system and systematic documentation provides more thorough response to trafficking survivors’ needs

A national referral system and database in the Philippines

THE EMERGING GOOD PRACTICE:

A mechanism of documentation and reporting with uniform guidelines to know what happens to a trafficked person who has returned home and to provide accurate statistical data that gives service providers a more complete picture of the needs of trafficking survivors.

GPGoodPractices

Coming Back and Moving On:Life After Human TraffickingInternational Labour Organization

Economic and Social Empowerment of Returned Victims of Trafficking in Thailand and Philippines

PH

ILIP

PIN

ES

THE INITIAL CHALLENGE:

The provision of recovery and reintegration services to victims of trafficking has been a challenge in many countries, including the Philippines.

Most service providers offer limited services and interventions for the recovery and reintegration

of trafficking survivors. Many trafficking survivors return to the Philippines with

little or no knowledge of or access to assistance and protection services

(including legal recourse).

With limited capacity, it is difficult for service providers to reach many people who have been exploited through trafficking and address their physical, psychosocial, economic and legal needs.

On the other hand, some women may encounter

several service providers after their return. Each

provider subjects a woman to

GPGoodPractices

Coming Back and Moving On: Life After Human Trafficking

Economic and Social Empowerment of Returned Victims of Trafficking in Thailand and Philippines

PH

ILIP

PIN

ES

different in-take interviews, involving many questions that have already been asked by other service providers. Thus, the women tell their stories repeatedly and possibly relive their painful experiences over and over again as a result (although the repetition can also be cathartic and contribute to a faster recovery).

No provider can respond to every survivor’s needs, but they should know where to refer someone when they are unable to help. Once a woman has entered the system that promises recovery, someone should be paying attention to where she goes and how she is helped. To slip through a crack may be all it takes for someone to fall back into a trafficking situation.

In the Philippines, the delivery of service to women who need it has been impeded by the lack of a systematic documentation of returned trafficked persons. As well, the lack of an accurate monitoring of individual cases has inhibited an overall understanding of where support or interventions are most needed.

THE RESPONSE:

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) together with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other partners developed specific guidelines for a referral system and a database for the systematic documentation of the recovery and reintegration interventions and services that are provided to trafficking survivors.

The DSWD and all other service providers are able to use both the system and database. Although the system is in its initial stages of implementation, the experience so far indicates considerable potential for its use in monitoring the response to trafficking survivors and directing services where they are most needed.

The Referral System on the Recovery and Reintegration of Trafficked Persons is a multidisciplinary, comprehensive and inter-agency mechanism among government and NGOs to facilitate the immediate access and/or referral of trafficked persons to appropriate support services. It begins with a standardized initial assessment that each service provider follows. Relevant government agencies and organizations have been identified and their roles and responsibilities have been clearly defined as well. Procedures and protocols for referrals have also been formulated to create uniformity in case management.

The National Recovery and Reintegration Database (NRRD) was created to supplement the referral system; while maintaining confidentiality, it contains the profiles of trafficking survivors as a mechanism for tracking the status of their cases and to ensure that appropriate services are provided to them.

As the primary government agency responsible for the welfare of Filipino citizens, the DSWD formulates policies and plans, develops and enhances current programmes and services for children, women, families and communities, and provides social protection to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups (such as children, women, people with disabilities, among others). In 2003, the DSWD’s mandate expanded to include the provision of comprehensive rehabilitation and protection programmes to trafficking survivors (through Republic Act 9208). The DSWD now co-chairs the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking with the Department of Justice; and at the regional level, the DSWD chairs the Regional Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking in Persons and Violence Against Women and Children.

Aware of previous gaps in assisting trafficking survivors, the DSWD wanted to institutionalize a tool for reporting, referring and documenting trafficking cases. The DSWD also wanted to improve the capacity of service providers to facilitate the psychosocial recovery and the social and economic reintegration of trafficking survivors.

GPGoodPractices

Coming Back and Moving On: Life After Human Trafficking

Economic and Social Empowerment of Returned Victims of Trafficking in Thailand and Philippines

PH

ILIP

PIN

ES

different in-take interviews, involving many questions that have already been asked by other service providers. Thus, the women tell their stories repeatedly and possibly relive their painful experiences over and over again as a result (although the repetition can also be cathartic and contribute to a faster recovery).

No provider can respond to every survivor’s needs, but they should know where to refer someone when they are unable to help. Once a woman has entered the system that promises recovery, someone should be paying attention to where she goes and how she is helped. To slip through a crack may be all it takes for someone to fall back into a trafficking situation.

In the Philippines, the delivery of service to women who need it has been impeded by the lack of a systematic documentation of returned trafficked persons. As well, the lack of an accurate monitoring of individual cases has inhibited an overall understanding of where support or interventions are most needed.

THE RESPONSE:

The Department of Social Welfare and Development (DSWD) together with the International Labour Organization (ILO) and other partners developed specific guidelines for a referral system and a database for the systematic documentation of the recovery and reintegration interventions and services that are provided to trafficking survivors.

The DSWD and all other service providers are able to use both the system and database. Although the system is in its initial stages of implementation, the experience so far indicates considerable potential for its use in monitoring the response to trafficking survivors and directing services where they are most needed.

The Referral System on the Recovery and Reintegration of Trafficked Persons is a multidisciplinary, comprehensive and inter-agency mechanism among government and NGOs to facilitate the immediate access and/or referral of trafficked persons to appropriate support services. It begins with a standardized initial assessment that each service provider follows. Relevant government agencies and organizations have been identified and their roles and responsibilities have been clearly defined as well. Procedures and protocols for referrals have also been formulated to create uniformity in case management.

The National Recovery and Reintegration Database (NRRD) was created to supplement the referral system; while maintaining confidentiality, it contains the profiles of trafficking survivors as a mechanism for tracking the status of their cases and to ensure that appropriate services are provided to them.

As the primary government agency responsible for the welfare of Filipino citizens, the DSWD formulates policies and plans, develops and enhances current programmes and services for children, women, families and communities, and provides social protection to vulnerable and disadvantaged groups (such as children, women, people with disabilities, among others). In 2003, the DSWD’s mandate expanded to include the provision of comprehensive rehabilitation and protection programmes to trafficking survivors (through Republic Act 9208). The DSWD now co-chairs the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking with the Department of Justice; and at the regional level, the DSWD chairs the Regional Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking in Persons and Violence Against Women and Children.

Aware of previous gaps in assisting trafficking survivors, the DSWD wanted to institutionalize a tool for reporting, referring and documenting trafficking cases. The DSWD also wanted to improve the capacity of service providers to facilitate the psychosocial recovery and the social and economic reintegration of trafficking survivors.

GPGoodPractices

Coming Back and Moving On: Life After Human Trafficking

Economic and Social Empowerment of Returned Victims of Trafficking in Thailand and Philippines

PH

ILIP

PIN

ES THE PROCESS:

The DSWD first consulted non-government organizations working for the rights of trafficked women, such as the Batis Center for Women, the Batis Association of Women in Action for Their Rights and Empowerment, the Development Action for Women Network and the Kanlungan Centre Foundation to confirm their cooperation and collaboration in developing the operational guidelines and a protocol for the referral system.

The experience, expertise and resources of government agencies, such as the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were also tapped.

A series of consultations, dialogues and workshops with all the consulted agencies and partners began in 2007.

Referral system

The referral system presents a “framework on intervention from the post overseas (receiving country) to the provision of services at the local level. It enumerates the possible services to be accorded to the trafficked persons and provides guidance to the service providers in dealing with the trafficked

1persons.”

Recovery and reintegration forms were developed to ensure a uniformity of documents and to avoid repetitive interviews. An inventory of existing reporting forms and referral procedures from relevant agencies were gathered and integrated. A total of seven standard referral and reporting forms were generated. One of the forms, the “client card”, is used for the database system. This makes data entry efficient and consistent. The client card is passed to agencies where a trafficking survivor has been referred, which allows the receiving agency to easily review the case of the victim and to decide on the appropriate services they will provide.

In addition, the DSWD sought a participatory approach in the development of indicators for successful reintegration. This includes consultation from service providers and trafficked survivors who have “recovered” and are now living a “normal” life. Indicators were developed at two levels: recovery and reintegration of the trafficked person, and assistance and services pursued by the service providers – in the areas of knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviour.

When a service provider (staff member) needs to refer someone, say, for psychosocial counselling – a service that probably is not available within that organization – he/she fills out a referral form to another agency that can provide such service. The agency to which the case has been referred sends back a referral feedback form to that initial service provider, indicating what help was given. The referral system is connected or linked to a national reintegration database, which primarily uses the client card as the main frame of the data. The initial service provider uploads the information on the services provided to the victim’s client card in the computerized database. This enables the service provider to have a record of all services for review and tracking.

In the event that the client needs to go home, such data may be transferred online to another service provider in the local area (a city or a province) who then handles the follow-up services. With the database information neatly recorded, the local service provider begins with a good awareness of what services have already been provided to the client.

Guidelines

The “Guidelines on a Referral System for the Recovery and Reintegration of Trafficked Persons” provide guidance to service providers to deliver a full range of assistance and protection to trafficking survivors. They cover the return phase of the trafficking spectrum and the referral system for the provision of pre-return, return and post-return reintegration into the family and community) services. The guidelines include three areas of “success indicators”: i) satisfy the immediate or emergency needs of a trafficked person and eliminate threat to life; ii) recovery of physical and psychological health of a trafficked person; and iii) crisis intervention. The indicators specify specific knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviour.

The guidelines also include the various forms used in the referral system to obtain information for storing in the database and to monitor the services each client receives.

The guidelines were developed by the Social Technology Bureau of the DSWD in collaboration with its local offices, other national government agencies and NGOs to provide uniform instruction to all service providers on referring trafficking survivors to appropriate services.

The guidelines supplement the DSWD’s Manual on the Recovery and Reintegration of Victims-Survivors of Trafficking (which entails “Guidelines on the Protection of the Rights of Trafficked Children” and the “Guidelines on the Protection of the Rights of Trafficked Women”).

“Innovative tools in helping trafficked persons”, draft write-up. April 2009.1

GPGoodPractices

Coming Back and Moving On: Life After Human Trafficking

Economic and Social Empowerment of Returned Victims of Trafficking in Thailand and Philippines

PH

ILIP

PIN

ES THE PROCESS:

The DSWD first consulted non-government organizations working for the rights of trafficked women, such as the Batis Center for Women, the Batis Association of Women in Action for Their Rights and Empowerment, the Development Action for Women Network and the Kanlungan Centre Foundation to confirm their cooperation and collaboration in developing the operational guidelines and a protocol for the referral system.

The experience, expertise and resources of government agencies, such as the Office of the Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Affairs of the Department of Foreign Affairs, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration were also tapped.

A series of consultations, dialogues and workshops with all the consulted agencies and partners began in 2007.

Referral system

The referral system presents a “framework on intervention from the post overseas (receiving country) to the provision of services at the local level. It enumerates the possible services to be accorded to the trafficked persons and provides guidance to the service providers in dealing with the trafficked

1persons.”

Recovery and reintegration forms were developed to ensure a uniformity of documents and to avoid repetitive interviews. An inventory of existing reporting forms and referral procedures from relevant agencies were gathered and integrated. A total of seven standard referral and reporting forms were generated. One of the forms, the “client card”, is used for the database system. This makes data entry efficient and consistent. The client card is passed to agencies where a trafficking survivor has been referred, which allows the receiving agency to easily review the case of the victim and to decide on the appropriate services they will provide.

In addition, the DSWD sought a participatory approach in the development of indicators for successful reintegration. This includes consultation from service providers and trafficked survivors who have “recovered” and are now living a “normal” life. Indicators were developed at two levels: recovery and reintegration of the trafficked person, and assistance and services pursued by the service providers – in the areas of knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviour.

When a service provider (staff member) needs to refer someone, say, for psychosocial counselling – a service that probably is not available within that organization – he/she fills out a referral form to another agency that can provide such service. The agency to which the case has been referred sends back a referral feedback form to that initial service provider, indicating what help was given. The referral system is connected or linked to a national reintegration database, which primarily uses the client card as the main frame of the data. The initial service provider uploads the information on the services provided to the victim’s client card in the computerized database. This enables the service provider to have a record of all services for review and tracking.

In the event that the client needs to go home, such data may be transferred online to another service provider in the local area (a city or a province) who then handles the follow-up services. With the database information neatly recorded, the local service provider begins with a good awareness of what services have already been provided to the client.

Guidelines

The “Guidelines on a Referral System for the Recovery and Reintegration of Trafficked Persons” provide guidance to service providers to deliver a full range of assistance and protection to trafficking survivors. They cover the return phase of the trafficking spectrum and the referral system for the provision of pre-return, return and post-return reintegration into the family and community) services. The guidelines include three areas of “success indicators”: i) satisfy the immediate or emergency needs of a trafficked person and eliminate threat to life; ii) recovery of physical and psychological health of a trafficked person; and iii) crisis intervention. The indicators specify specific knowledge, attitudes, skills and behaviour.

The guidelines also include the various forms used in the referral system to obtain information for storing in the database and to monitor the services each client receives.

The guidelines were developed by the Social Technology Bureau of the DSWD in collaboration with its local offices, other national government agencies and NGOs to provide uniform instruction to all service providers on referring trafficking survivors to appropriate services.

The guidelines supplement the DSWD’s Manual on the Recovery and Reintegration of Victims-Survivors of Trafficking (which entails “Guidelines on the Protection of the Rights of Trafficked Children” and the “Guidelines on the Protection of the Rights of Trafficked Women”).

“Innovative tools in helping trafficked persons”, draft write-up. April 2009.1

GPGoodPractices

Coming Back and Moving On: Life After Human Trafficking

Economic and Social Empowerment of Returned Victims of Trafficking in Thailand and Philippines

PH

ILIP

PIN

ESNational database

The database is being pilot tested in four regions across the country.

Although trainings about the database and capacity building workshops on recovery and reintegration services have been conducted since December 2008, the database only became operational in January 2009. Not all NGOs and government agencies have access to the database yet; only those who provide services to trafficking survivors can access it. Because the system contains confidential information, the NRRD has security features and only approved personnel in the approved agencies can access it – once they have signed a “nondisclosure agreement” that the DSWD monitors. DSWD field officers and other relevant agency staff members with permission from the DSWD are the only ones who can access the database (officers with the ILO–UN Trust Fund for Human Security project partners also have access currently for monitoring purposes.

As the coordinating agency, the DSWD maintains the database system. Each project partner is required to assign a focal person to do data entry, updating and monitoring of the cases. Any information entered into the database by a partner is monitored by staff from the Social Technology Bureau of the DSWD. Data is examined in terms of technical errors and most especially in following up the assistance and interventions given and to be provided to a trafficking survivor. Any error or missing service update is referred back to the partner for correction and case follow-up.

An operating Referral System on the Recovery and Reintegration of Trafficked Persons and a piloted National Recovery and Reintegration Database. The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking of the Department of Justice approved the referral system in March 2009, signifying that it can be used nationwide and that relevant government agencies are required to implement it.

Since the database became operational in January 2009, a total of 450 cases have been entered.

OUTCOMES:

l

l

The implementing agencies have expressed appreciation of the referral system and database, saying that it will “revolutionize” the delivery of services to trafficked persons. The Asia Acts Against Child Trafficking, a regional organization with an office in the Philippines, has seen the potential of the database and has worked with the DSWD and the ILO to adopt the database and the referral system and promote their use among its partners nationwide. They have also committed to lead a training programme for this in other parts of the country where they operate. Visayan Form, a local organization dealing with the issue of trafficking among others, also committed to use the system in all its networks nationwide. Visayan Forum operates half-way houses for trafficked persons in various seaports and airports around the country.

Inter-agency or multisector and multidisciplinary approaches are crucial factors to ensure that a range of services are available for victims of trafficking and to ensure that the victims are fully recovered and reintegrated socially and economically. Although pertinent government agencies have already collaborated in the development of a referral system, the support of the local government units still need to be pursued for the effective implementation of RA 9208 because trafficking survivors will eventually reintegrate into their communities of origin. Follow-up care and services will be handled by local service providers, in particular the local social welfare officer of the locality.

The inventory of the services provided by relevant agencies is an important step to make the services efficient. The referral system is particularly useful in turning over cases to proper authorities when a person moves to another location.

The potential of the system is immense in the systematic delivery of services to various sectors of society. Service providers focused on children or other marginalized sectors of society could adapt the system for their own use.

It is imperative that the database system is user-friendly because staff from government agencies and NGOs may not necessarily have sufficient computer knowledge.

Although the database system is maintained by the DSWD, ownership is the responsibility of all involved parties.

LESSONS LEARNED:

l

l

l

l

l

GPGoodPractices

Coming Back and Moving On: Life After Human Trafficking

Economic and Social Empowerment of Returned Victims of Trafficking in Thailand and Philippines

PH

ILIP

PIN

ES

National database

The database is being pilot tested in four regions across the country.

Although trainings about the database and capacity building workshops on recovery and reintegration services have been conducted since December 2008, the database only became operational in January 2009. Not all NGOs and government agencies have access to the database yet; only those who provide services to trafficking survivors can access it. Because the system contains confidential information, the NRRD has security features and only approved personnel in the approved agencies can access it – once they have signed a “nondisclosure agreement” that the DSWD monitors. DSWD field officers and other relevant agency staff members with permission from the DSWD are the only ones who can access the database (officers with the ILO–UN Trust Fund for Human Security project partners also have access currently for monitoring purposes.

As the coordinating agency, the DSWD maintains the database system. Each project partner is required to assign a focal person to do data entry, updating and monitoring of the cases. Any information entered into the database by a partner is monitored by staff from the Social Technology Bureau of the DSWD. Data is examined in terms of technical errors and most especially in following up the assistance and interventions given and to be provided to a trafficking survivor. Any error or missing service update is referred back to the partner for correction and case follow-up.

An operating Referral System on the Recovery and Reintegration of Trafficked Persons and a piloted National Recovery and Reintegration Database. The Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking of the Department of Justice approved the referral system in March 2009, signifying that it can be used nationwide and that relevant government agencies are required to implement it.

Since the database became operational in January 2009, a total of 450 cases have been entered.

OUTCOMES:

l

l

The implementing agencies have expressed appreciation of the referral system and database, saying that it will “revolutionize” the delivery of services to trafficked persons. The Asia Acts Against Child Trafficking, a regional organization with an office in the Philippines, has seen the potential of the database and has worked with the DSWD and the ILO to adopt the database and the referral system and promote their use among its partners nationwide. They have also committed to lead a training programme for this in other parts of the country where they operate. Visayan Form, a local organization dealing with the issue of trafficking among others, also committed to use the system in all its networks nationwide. Visayan Forum operates half-way houses for trafficked persons in various seaports and airports around the country.

Inter-agency or multisector and multidisciplinary approaches are crucial factors to ensure that a range of services are available for victims of trafficking and to ensure that the victims are fully recovered and reintegrated socially and economically. Although pertinent government agencies have already collaborated in the development of a referral system, the support of the local government units still need to be pursued for the effective implementation of RA 9208 because trafficking survivors will eventually reintegrate into their communities of origin. Follow-up care and services will be handled by local service providers, in particular the local social welfare officer of the locality.

The inventory of the services provided by relevant agencies is an important step to make the services efficient. The referral system is particularly useful in turning over cases to proper authorities when a person moves to another location.

The potential of the system is immense in the systematic delivery of services to various sectors of society. Service providers focused on children or other marginalized sectors of society could adapt the system for their own use.

It is imperative that the database system is user-friendly because staff from government agencies and NGOs may not necessarily have sufficient computer knowledge.

Although the database system is maintained by the DSWD, ownership is the responsibility of all involved parties.

LESSONS LEARNED:

l

l

l

l

l

GPGoodPractices

PH

ILIP

PIN

ES