Lawmaker wants age restriction in anti-trafficking law amended

MANILA – OFW Party-list Rep. Marissa “Del Mar” Magsino said Thursday she filed House Bill (HB) 10579 seeking to amend the provision of Republic Act (RA) 11862 or the Expanded Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act of 2022 on the term classifying “underage” workers.

Magsino said to be consistent with international law and standards, RA 11862’s provision should be amended as it identifies “child” as a person below 24 years old.

She said RA 11862 amended RA 9208 and included “an act of trafficking in persons” to recruit, transport, obtain, transfer, harbor, maintain, offer, hire, provide, receive, or adopt a child for deployment abroad as a migrant worker, without the need of any accompanying unlawful acts, such as with the use of force or threat, abduction or similar unlawful means to commit trafficking as enumerated in the law.

However, she said the amendment also included a proviso that “in the case of overseas domestic work, a ‘child’ means a person below 24 years old.”

“This proviso has stirred a hornet’s nest,” Magsino said in a news release.

She said the restriction would necessarily result in the loss of overseas employment opportunities for Filipino domestic workers who are below 24 years old as their recruitment and employment would be tantamount to human trafficking under the proviso.

“A child is universally well-defined in numerous conventions and even in domestic laws as (a) person below 18 years old. Thus, the proviso in RA 11862 is restrictive and discriminatory to Filipino migrant women domestic workers or household service workers as it violates their right to work and travel,” she said.

Magsino added that the proviso is also inconsistent with the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination Against Women (CEDAM), which forbids States to impose age-specific bans.

She said the proposed remedial legislation also conforms with the recommendation of the United Nations Committee on the Protection of the Rights of All Migrant Workers and Members of Their Families on the Third Periodic Report of the Philippines in 2023.

Magsino said she believes that overseas domestic work or household service is one of the most important sources of employment for women abroad.

HB 10579, she said, is supported by the Center for Migrant Advocacy. — Zaldy De Layola (PNA)

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