tv Asia Insight PBS March 26, 2016 12:00am-12:31am PDT
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trafficking division. >> human traffickers are preying on young people in deprived areas, taking them to cities where they are forced into labor or prostitution. >> trafficking is a very profitable business. it is a round $50 billion in profits every year. by the underground operations of this crime. >> reporter: the situation deteriorated after typhoon haiyan struck the philippines in november 2013. the typhoon was one of the most powerful in history, with wind speeds reaching more than 320 kilometers per hour. the storm killed more than 6,000 people and destroyed around 1 million homes.
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>> reporter: on the front lines of human trafficking, we examine the new scourge facing typhoon-hit regions. a port town on the island of latety in the central philippines. with a population of 220,000, it was one of the areas hardest hit by typhoon haiyan. many buildings destroyed by the huge storm have yet to be rebuilt. this impoverished neighborhood is a 15-minute drive from the center of the town.
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>> a well-dressed friendly woman was searching for young people and offering well-paid work. >> this is the tacloban branch of the national bureau of investigation. assistant director earn they stoes macabare says traffickers are changing their tactics. instead of kidnapping and threats they prefer to use
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nonviolent means to trap their victims. that makes it harder to arrest the perpetrators. >> we were able to meet a woman who fell victim to the trafficking gangs. this shelter is run by the philippines department of social welfare and development. the shelter accepts orphans and women fleeing from domestic violence.
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it finds families to adopt the children and provides occupational training to help the women regain their independence. since the huge typhoon, the center has also been looking after victims of human trafficking. michel, now 21, was trafficked four months after the typhoon. she fell victim after a friend introduced her to a woman, an apparently kind, well-dressed person.
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>> michelle is a single mother with two children. before the typhoon, she lived with her parents in an impoverished area of tacloban. her father supported the family working as a day laborer in construction and other jobs. the typhoon destroyed their house. michelle's father lost his job. michelle and her younger sister decided to accept the woman's invitation to work in a karaoke bar. they were taken to the town of abuyag, a two-hour drive from tacloban. the work was very different from the job they had been told about.
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>> after four months, michelle and her sister managed to escape. they ran without stopping to the bus terminal and boarded a long-distance bus. when they arrived in tacloban, they sought help from the shelter. soon after, the head of the shelter helped michelle find work as a maid. her younger sister returned home. she was still suffering severe physical and psychological effects from the drugs injected into her.
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land. before, these are the 41 cases reported on trafficking. and after haiyan, there were only nine cases. >> this is a list of trafficking cases investigated by tacloban authorities. in 2012, the year before the typhoon, a total of 41 cases were prosecuted. just one year later, however, the number of cases fell to just nine. >> after haiyan there are many unreported cases that did not reach us. so it's difficult to detect.
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because first, they purpose ly address just a relative or a person, a friend they know. and some doesn't know if they have been trafficked, they are trafficked already. and also others are -- they just want to have the job. even if they're being trafficked. like there is no other opportunity for them. >> the following day, carmilla visits michelle's youngest sister, mary, who is still struggling from the effects of drug addiction. since leaving carmilla's shelter, mary has been living with her family where she receives treatment.
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>> having lost their home in the typhoon the family has spent the last two years moving around, living with relatives and friends. >> mary is on daily medication. she takes sleeping pills and other drugs to control anxiety. carmilla's shelter pays for some of her medicine costs. the mother is still trying to come to terms with her daughter's condition.
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>> for the past year, carmilla has been doing nightly patrols around tacloban. there are always women who are forced to sell themselves to survive. victims of the typhoon receive money from the government and international organizations. people in impoverished areas don't always have a registered address, making it hard for them to get the support they need. for many, life is still a
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to support victims of the typhoon. the seminar offers information about occupational training in taclob tacloban. participants can also learn how they can borrow money to smatara small business. nightly patrols are one of the efforts under way to help women trapped in poverty more than two years after the typhoon struck. in 2003, the philippine government launched a new organization charged with combating human trafficking nationwide. the interagency council against trafficking. >> council has supported agencies, government and nongovernment agencies. we have three, four areas that
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we focus on in our efforts. one is the prevention -- efforts and prevention. efforts on prevention. efforts on partnership. so we have several programs and services for each of these key areas. >> this is a nursing home in manila. a seminar is under way to educate students about the dangers of human trafficking. the seminar is run by an ngo that supports the victims of trafficking.
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this is the team from manila. it's trying to catch a man suspected of pimping young girls. >> the subject is a subject called sonny kuba. we don't know approximately -- he's 30 to 35 years old. he's a possible user for drugs. >> the team is led by an investigative officer. the other members are from the manila police and an ngo fighting against trafficking.
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two days later, he's prosecuted on charges of pimping the girls. the four rescued girls are aged between 13 and 16. they say the man threatened them and they had no choice but to do what he told them. after health checks at the hospital the four girls will be taken to the shelter run by the ngo. the girls rescued today are from manila, but the team say they often rescue women and girls from the areas destroyed by typhoon haiyan.
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>> that's the ufts thing about haiyan, it displaced a lot of people. so a lot of human traffickers and perpetrators tried to go there and tried to lure people and bring them somewhere else and exploit their situation. >> it's like a boom, you know, a boom effect. people vulnerable to human trafficking double or triple. so i think we should be more proactive rather than reactive. because we are losing. we are losing the war. we are losing our girls. >> poor filipinos are most at risk when typhoons strike. they're also the most vulnerable to human traffickers. work to protect them from this social menace continues.
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anchor: this week, global 3000 is on the west coast of india where an entire village is taking care of turtles. here, they are holy creatures - but above all, they need protection. we look at a gigantic building project in nigeria - which aims to protect the megacity of lagos from dangers caused by rising sea levels. but how will it work? but we start in berlin, where we meet a resistance fighter who's using non-violent means to combat the terror of so-called islamic state. non-violent resistance needs to have a message. and also symbols. these need to be simple. when they work well, they become a kind of brand, like the fist of the serbian organisation canvas. , it's about demonstrating without being provokedo
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