Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery Poverty drives the unsuspecting poor into the
hands of traffickers Published
reports & articles from 2000 to 2025 gvnet.com/humantrafficking/Palau.htm
Palau is a transit
and destination country for a small number of women trafficked from the
Philippines and the People’s Republic of China (PRC) for purpose of
commercial exploitation, and for a small number of men from the Philippines,
the PRC and Bangladesh for the purpose of forced labor. Some employers
recruit foreign men and women to work in Palau through fraudulent representation
of contract terms and conditions of employment. These foreign workers
willingly migrate to Palau for jobs in domestic service, agriculture, or
construction, but are subsequently coerced to work in situations
significantly different than what their contracts stipulated – excessive
hours without pay, confiscation of their travel documents, and the
withholding of salary payments as a means of controlling their movement;
these conditions may be indicative of involuntary servitude. Some workers are
also threatened by their employers, and some women expecting to work as
waitresses or clerks, are forced into commercial sexual exploitation in
karaoke bars and massage parlors. Since the late 1990s, the Philippines
government banned its nationals from migrating to Palau to serve as domestic
workers. - U.S. State Dept
Trafficking in Persons Report, June, 2009 Check
out a later country report here and possibly a full TIP Report here |
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CAUTION:
The following links have been culled from
the web to illuminate the situation in Palau.
Some of these links may lead to websites that present allegations that
are unsubstantiated or even false. No
attempt has been made to verify their authenticity or to validate their
content. HOW TO USE THIS WEB-PAGE Students If you are looking
for material to use in a term-paper, you are advised to scan the postings on
this page and others to see which aspects of Human Trafficking are of
particular interest to you. Would you
like to write about Forced-Labor? Debt
Bondage? Prostitution? Forced Begging? Child Soldiers? Sale of Organs? etc. On the other
hand, you might choose to include precursors of trafficking such as poverty and hunger. There is a lot to
the subject of Trafficking. Scan other
countries as well. Draw comparisons
between activity in adjacent countries and/or regions. Meanwhile, check out some of the Term-Paper resources
that are available on-line. Teachers Check out some of
the Resources
for Teachers attached to this website. ***
ARCHIVES *** 2020 Country
Reports on Human Rights Practices: Palau U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, 30 March 2021 www.state.gov/reports/2020-country-reports-on-human-rights-practices/palau/
[accessed 20 June
2021] PROHIBITION OF
FORCED OR COMPULSORY LABOR There were reports
some employers forced foreign workers, particularly domestic helpers,
unskilled construction laborers, and workers in the tourism industry, to
accept jobs different from those for which they had signed contracts and to
accept less pay than stipulated in the contracts. There were also reports of
fraudulent recruitment onto fishing boats, with fishermen subsequently facing
conditions indicative of forced labor. Filipino, Bangladeshi, Nepali,
Chinese, Thai, and Korean immigrants who pay thousands of dollars in
recruitment fees and immigrate to the country for the types of jobs noted
above are the most vulnerable to these arrangements. Employers sometimes
verbally threatened, or withheld passports and return tickets from, foreign
workers seeking to leave unfavorable work situations. PROHIBITION OF CHILD
LABOR AND MINIMUM AGE FOR EMPLOYMENT There were no
reports children worked in the formal economy, but some assisted their families
with fishing, agriculture, and small-scale family enterprises. Freedom House
Country Report 2020 Edition freedomhouse.org/country/palau/freedom-world/2020 [accessed 8 July
2020] G4. DO INDIVIDUALS
ENJOY EQUALITY OF OPPORTUNITY AND FREEDOM FROM ECONOMIC EXPLOITATION? Residents generally
have access to economic opportunity, and the law provides some protections
against exploitative labor practices. However, enforcement of such safeguards
is inadequate, and foreign workers (one-third of Palau’s population are
noncitizens) remain vulnerable to sexual exploitation, forced labor, or
otherwise abusive working conditions in sectors including domestic service
and fisheries. The minimum wage law does not apply to foreign workers. Some
officials have been accused of complicity in human trafficking. The 2019 US State
Department’s Trafficking in Persons Report noted that the government of Palau
had taken efforts to combat the presence of human trafficking, although much
action was needed. In recent years, the president has created a national
action plan, funded an assessment of the extent of trafficking in Palau and
the effectiveness of the government’s antitrafficking
infrastructure, created a temporary shelter for people who have been
trafficked, and established a trafficking hotline. However, standard
operating procedures to refer survivors of trafficking to protection
services, as well as the protection services themselves,
are underfunded and inadequate, and the government has not investigated the
indicators of trafficking in labor recruitment. Man convicted of
human trafficking ‘luckiest person in the world’ Bernadette H.
Carreon, Horizon news staff, Palau News, Marianas Variety, January 9, 2008 At one time this
article had been archived and may possibly still be accessible [here]
[accessed 10
September 2011] Ting Feng Chiang
“is the luckiest person in the world” for getting out of jail despite his
20-year sentence for human trafficking and advancing prostitution, according
to his former attorney, Johnson Toribiong. On Dec. 28, Associate Justice Lourdes Materne ruled in favor of Chiang who filed a petition for
habeas corpus. Chiang has argued that Toribiong failed to provide him effective representation
and that he was deprived of his right to have an interpreter during the
trial. Concluding
Observations of the Committee on the Rights of the Child (CRC) UN Convention on the
Rights of the Child, 26 January 2001 www1.umn.edu/humanrts/crc/palau2001.html [accessed 15
December 2010] [54] The Committee
expresses concern at the absence of adequate labour
laws to protect children from economic exploitation. In the light of the
increasing number of school drop-outs, the lack of a minimum age for
employment and the increasing number of children living and/or working on the
streets, the Committee is concerned about the lack of information and
adequate data on the situation of child labour and
economic exploitation in the State party. [58] The Committee
expresses its concern about the inadequate legal protection of children,
particularly boys, against commercial sexual exploitation, including
prostitution and pornography. Concern is also expressed at the insufficient programmes for the physical and psychological recovery
and social reintegration of child victims of such abuse and exploitation. The Protection
Project - The www.protectionproject.org/human_rights_reports/report_documents/palau.doc [accessed 2009] FACTORS THAT
CONTRIBUTE TO THE TRAFFICKING INFRASTRUCTURE - One of the major factors that
contribute to trafficking into FORMS OF TRAFFICKING - There are
reports that migrants from the Philippines may be trafficked to Palau for the
purpose of forced labor. After being recruited at home, these typically
unskilled Filipino workers usually arrive to Palau as tourists and end up
being exploited and abused. The practice continues despite a ban on
employment of Filipinos in Palau that was issued by the Philippines Overseas
Employment Administration. According to the victims, the average
“recruitment” fee amounts to US$1,500, which is deducted
from the worker’s monthly salary of approximately US$200. An average
victim repays the fee in 10 months and is required to set aside the salary of
the final 2 months of a typical 1-year contract for the purchase of a return
ticket. Consequently, the victims are rarely able to bring any money back to
the Philippines. Child labor is not
considered to be an issue in Palau, and no evidence exists that children are
forced to work under unsafe or unhealthy conditions. ***
EARLIER EDITIONS OF SOME OF THE ABOVE *** Human Rights
Reports » 2006 Country Reports on Human Rights Practices U.S. Dept of State Bureau of Democracy, Human Rights, and
Labor, March 6, 2007 2009-2017.state.gov/j/drl/rls/hrrpt/2006/78786.htm [accessed 10
February 2020] WOMEN
- Prostitution
is illegal, but it was a problem. There were reports of women being trafficked
to the country from the People's Republic of China (PRC), Taiwan, and the
Philippines to work in karaoke bars as hostesses and prostitutes (see section
5, Trafficking). There was one conviction for trafficking for prostitution
during the year. TRAFFICKING
IN PERSONS
– The Divisions of Immigration and Labor and the Office of the Attorney
General are involved in combating trafficking; however, the government lacked
the resources and expertise to address the problem in practice. There was no
formalized assistance available for victims, and victims normally were
detained, jailed, or deported if they committed a crime such as prostitution.
No nongovernmental organizations specifically addressed trafficking. All material
used herein reproduced under the fair use exception of 17 USC § 107 for
noncommercial, nonprofit, and educational use. PLEASE RESPECT COPYRIGHTS OF COMPONENT
ARTICLES. Cite this webpage as: Patt,
Prof. Martin, "Human Trafficking & Modern-day Slavery - |
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