Canada, Philippines join forces to fight sex crimes

The Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP) is partnering with the Philippines to help protect children from sexual exploitation and to identify and bring those who harm them to justice.

Last week, the RCMP signed agreements with both the Philippine National Police and the Philippine National Bureau of Investigation to strengthen their existing efforts to combat crimes against children and youth such as the sale of children, child prostitution and child pornography, trafficking, and other forms of child sexual abuse.

"Child sexual exploitation is an abhorrent and horrific crime that continues to place children in Canada and abroad at risk. Collaborative work between our two countries will better protect children from this scourge,” said Ralph Goodale, Canada’s Minister of Public Safety and Emergency Preparedness

"Children and youth have the right to be protected and cared for by their family, society, and Government. These partnerships will help fight crimes against children that seriously endanger their health and psychological well-being,” said Philipe Thibodeau, Acting Deputy Commissioner, Specialized Policing Services, RCMP .

This collaboration will make it easier for all parties to:

exchange information on suspicious persons;

identify child victims;

support and protect the rights of child victims during and following investigations;

coordinate and execute joint or cooperative investigations;

share legal and scientific instruments; and,

train and educate law enforcement officials in preventing and fighting sexual offences against children.

“The RCMP and Philippine authorities are building on an already successful working relationship to share information on all forms of child sexual exploitation and to provide advanced training in these complex investigations. This new agreement formalizes their respective roles and responsibilities and solidifies this important partnership,” the RCMP said in a statement.

Tens of thousands of girls in the Philippines are estimated by charities to be trapped in the sex trade, with a growing number abused online for global clients due to the country’s cheap internet, high standard of English and widespread poverty.

The Southeast Asian nation received about 60,000 reports of online child sexual exploitation last year - up a third on 2017 - said a U.S. investigator working in the Philippines with the International Justice Mission (IJM) - an anti-trafficking group.

From Australia and the United States to Britain, major nations are boosting efforts to stop their citizens fuelling an illicit business believed to be spreading across Southeast Asia.

But obstacles are aplenty. Many victims are exploited by their own families and unable or afraid to speak out, while the encrypted nature of modern technology from messaging to video call apps makes criminals tough to track, according to police.

The Philippines is a source country and, a destination and transit country for men, women, and children subjected to sex trafficking and forced labor the U.S. State Department in its latest Trafficking in Persons Report.

An estimated 10 million Filipinos reside or work abroad and the government processes approximately 2.3 million new or renewed contracts for Filipinos to work overseas each year.

A significant number of these migrant workers are subjected to sex and labor trafficking—predominantly via debt bondage—in the fishing, shipping, construction, education, home health care, and agricultural industries, as well as in domestic work, janitorial service, and other hospitality-related jobs, the Trafficking in Persons Report stated.

“Women and children from indigenous communities and remote areas of the Philippines are the most vulnerable to sex trafficking, and some are vulnerable to domestic servitude and other forms of forced labor.”

In addition to the surfer’s paradise of Surigao del Norte, the report said sex and human trafficking also occurs in tourist destinations, such as Boracay, Angeles City, Olongapo and Puerto Galera.

To help combat this scourge in the Philippines, Canada last year announced it will fund 9 projects for women and girls in the Philippines, as it sets gender equality and empowerment among its priorities in the Southeast Asian country.

Quick Facts

The RCMP's National Child Exploitation Crime Centre (NCECC), was created in response to the recognition of the growing and disturbing crime of Internet-facilitated child sexual exploitation.

In 2018, the NCECC received 61,174 complaints/report pertaining to online sexual exploitation offences, representing a dramatic 616% increase since 2014.

Budget 2018 invested an additional $19 million over five years and $5.8 million per year ongoing to enhance support for the NCECC to increase its investigative capacity.

In a review of 153,000 reports of online child exploitation from 2008 to 2015, Cybertip.ca (Canada's tipline to report this crime-type), found that 78.3% of children in the images/videos were estimated to be under the age of 12 years old.

Within the RCMP's Behavioural Sciences Investigative Services, the High Risk Sex Offender (HRSO) Program assesses Canadian sexual offenders for their risk of recidivism and will then share their information with foreign law enforcement for the purpose of prevention.

Under the Criminal Code, specifically, sub-section 7 (4.1), a Canadian citizen or a permanent resident of Canada may be charged in Canada for a sexual offence against a child committed in a foreign country.