01 August 2016 – The Philippine Embassy in Beirut, Lebanon held a Seminar-Workshop on Anti-Trafficking in Persons and Dialogue with Filipino Community Leaders at the Chancery Showroom last 31 July 2016 to mark the World Day against Anti-Trafficking in Persons.

The seminar was organized by the Embassy in partnership with Caritas Lebanon Migrants Center (CLMC) and was attended by fifty-one (51) Filipino community leaders. In his welcome remarks, Charge d’Affaires Enrik Fort Revillas highlighted the Philippine Government’s achievements in combatting human trafficking, sharing the country’s recent upgrade to Tier 1 in the US State Department’s 2016 Trafficking in Persons Report.

He also emphasized the crucial role of the Filipino community in Lebanon as part-ners and stakeholders in combating human trafficking. He expressed hope that the seminar will enhance the knowledge and awareness of the Filipino community leaders on the crime of human trafficking and urged them to strengthen their efforts to combat this modern-day slavery by actively assisting fellow Filipinos who may have been victims of trafficking and cooperating fully with the Philippine Embassy.

The Embassy invited experts from CLMC to conduct the first part of the workshop. CLMC Training and Advocacy Head Ms. Nouha Roukoss and Senior Social Worker Ms. Nivine Aoun held sessions on relevant local and international laws against hu-man trafficking, victim identification and first response, as well as procedures and challenges on how such cases are dealt with in the Lebanese justice system.

Through the activities, the participants were given examples and pointers on how to identify human trafficking cases and where to report them. The participants also fa-miliarized themselves with the Philippine national legal framework against human trafficking and illegal recruitment.

A dialogue with the Filipino community leaders was held in the afternoon, where speakers composed of Charge d’Affaires Enrik Fort Revillas, Legal Officer Junaid Ali, Consular Officer Geranfel Abrillo, Labor Attache Atty. Bulyok Nilong, and Overseas Workers Welfare Administration head Levin Reynald Gabutan extensively discussed the services offered by the Embassy covering Consular, Assistance-to-Nationals, Labor, Welfare and Contingency Planning aspects.

The dialogue also highlighted the successes and challenges faced by Embassy and the Filipino community in protecting the rights of Filipino workers in Lebanon and offered an opportunity for the Filipino community leaders to give feedback on the Embassy’s services. END