CFO campaigns for awareness on int'l migration, intermarriages
Tagbilaran City (31 July) -- Boholanos who have emigrated legally get a lot of support system, but those who may have been "trafficked" may not have the same opportunity, say authorities from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFO) during the weekly Kapihan sa PIA.
Support system, CFO's Ivy Miravalles said could be pre-departure orientation seminar for emigrants and linking with Filipino organizations abroad.
To date there are about 7,612 Boholanos who have permanently emigrated to other countries since 1988, but admittedly several still have been unlisted and came out of the country through the backdoors.
CFO also estimates 8.72M overseas Filipinos. 3.89M of them are permanent residents of countries outside and about 10.32% of them are irregular dwellers, posing more work for the government to account and help them should any of them have problems.
"Technically, these people are either trafficked or have been arranged in marriage through mail-order brides, some may even have been pushed by parents to want to join the bandwagon of rags to riches tales," Miravalles clarified.
Some of the tales however do not end happily ever after.
Often cases documented by CFO are of Filipinas getting into whirlwind marriages but end up being enslaved, beaten and because they are illegally staying in a foreign country, they hesitate to report to authorities.
Over these, CFO embarks on community education programs (CEP) in Guimaras and Siquijor to campaign for more awareness especially when the recent global crisis has pushed people to the new job frontiers in Canada and the United Arab Emirates.
The CEP seeks to raise public awareness on various issues concerning migration, intermarriages and existing government policies and programs directed against illegal recruitment, fraud documentation and human trafficking, CFO press release stated.
This year, annual CEP billed as "Handa ka na bang mag-abroad? Ano ba ang dapat alamin?, puts CFO officials into conducting activities like pulong-pulongs with religious leaders, local government units, community members and school symposia to advance their advocacies. (PIA)
Linkback:
https://tubagbohol.mikeligalig.com/index.php?topic=81722.0
