Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. (Photo from Inquirer/ Presidential Photo) |
[Asia News Communication = Reporter Reakkana] MANILA— The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) has launched an investigation into allegations that Filipino trafficking victims were treated poorly in the embassy shelter in Syria’s capital, PH Inquirer said.
“The [DFA] has taken these allegations seriously. Certain personnel has been administratively investigated and a human rights lawyer has been deployed to further look into the allegations of poor treatment of Filipino victims while under temporary shelter and to recommend other necessary actions to be taken,” the department said in a statement Monday. In a separate tweet, Foreign Affairs Secretary Teodoro Locsin Jr. said he would be meeting with “the handful in the know to get to the bottom of this” on Tuesday.
“[W]hat we know is its root in the human trade in Mindanao. No one will be spared however influential. I will protect our Muslim sisters at all costs,” he added. This, following a Washington Post report on Filipino women, who were promised work in the United Arab Emirates but were trafficked to Syria, where their employers would physically and sexually abuse them. The report also cited the accounts of the Filipino victims who said they experienced poor treatment at the shelter in the Philippine Embassy in Damascus when they fled there to get away from their abusive employers.