TYPHOON SPARKS PHILIPPINE CHILD TRAFFICKING?
MANILA, Philippines - A UK-based children's charity has asked the
Philippines to investigate the suspected recruitment of child workers for sex
trafficking in a region devastated by Super Typhoon Haiyan, an aid official
said Saturday.
Plan International said it was concerned about five high school girls who
were recruited after the Nov 8 typhoon in Basey and Marabut, two impoverished
coastal towns on the island of Samar that sustained heavy damage and
casualties.
Aid groups have expressed concern over the human trafficking threat sparked
after Haiyan left nearly 8,000 people dead or missing.
Children who have lost their parents in the disaster, as well as adults in
desperate search of work, are especially vulnerable, groups say.
"Samar is known as a source area for human traffickers," Plan
International Philippines anti-trafficking project officer Shirley Vastero told
AFP, adding the girls were recruited by a family friend.
She said "hundreds" of women from Samar have ended up working in
the red-light district of the northern city of Olongapo since 2008, when Plan
International began a campaign against human trafficking on the island.
While the promised work for the five girls sounded legitimate, aid workers
were suspicious because the parents were told their daughters would be working
only at night, she said.
"They were recruited to work as sales ladies in a Manila bakery, but
what kind of bakery is open only from 6pm until midnight?" Vastero said
she did not have the exact age of the girls.
Adding that the Welfare Department
had promised to look into the case. However, Social Welfare Secretary Corazon Soliman did not
answer calls made by AFP Saturday.
The Philippine government has listed 109 children orphaned by Haiyan on Leyte island alone.
Source: AFP, Agencies
VIETNAM ESCAPES THE WRATH OF TYPHOON HAIYAN
Typhoon Haiyan has made landfall in Vietnam, days after leaving thousands feared dead and widespread devastation in the Philippines, meteorologists confirm.
The national weather forecaster said Haiyan made landfall in northern province of Quang Ninh at 5:00am local time on Monday (22:00 GMT on Sunday) as a tropical storm.
It was moving towards southern China and is expected to weaken to a low depression later on Monday.
Downpours hit the capital, Hanoi, and houses in some northern provinces were damaged by strong winds.
"Several hundred houses had their roofs ripped off. Thousands of trees in the province were uprooted," said Nguyen Cong Thuan, a disaster official in Quang Ninh province.
- "Three people were reported missing," he added. National disaster officials said no deaths had been reported so far on Monday, although state media said five people had died during preparations for the typhoon.
- Haiyan has weakened significantly since scything through the Philippines at the weekend, and had sustained winds of 120km per hour as it hit Vietnam.
- That was down from winds of over 300km per hour when the storm hit the Philippines, devastating Leyte and Samar provinces, as well as other areas.
More than 600,000 Vietnamese were evacuated from their homes at the weekend as Haiyan bore down on Vietnam.
The storm changed course on Sunday, prompting further mass evacuations of about 52,000 people in northern provinces by the coast.
"People must bring enough food and necessities for three days.... Those who do not move voluntarily will be forced," online newspaper VNExpress said, adding all boats have been ordered back to shore.
All schools were ordered shut in the capital Monday and extra police were dispatched to redirect traffic in flood-prone areas.
Source: Al Jazeera and agencies
VISITORS GEOFLAGS SINCE AUGUST 26, 2009
