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Some 70 members of the Filipino migrant community in Ankara, Turkey,
participated in a forum on migration organized by the Philippine
Embassy on February 10 at the Philippine Embassy in Turkey.
In his welcome remarks, Philippine Ambassador to
Turkey Bahnarim A. Guinomla said that “the forum was
conceptualized by the embassy in order to focus on the hosting by
the Philippines of the Global Forum on Migration and Development [GFMD]
in October 2008”. “We need to create awareness of this
landmark event to highlight the country’s advocacy of the rights
and welfare of our migrant workers,” the Ambassador told the forum
participants.
Guest speaker Maurizio Busatti, Chief of Mission
of the International Organization for Migration (IOM) in Turkey,
urged migrants to be aware of the risks of exploitation and to be
familiar with the relevant rules, regulations, and legislations
relative to migration.
The seminar organizers acknowledged that like
all migrants in many parts of the world, Filipinos in Turkey have to
find ways and means for victims of exploitation, sex crimes, and
other offenses against migrants to cope with their problems.
Busatti praised the “highly evolved system of
monitoring” being practiced by the Philippines to assist its
migrants and lauded the Filipino migrants’ high level of education
and excellent qualifications.
He also said that distressed migrants in Turkey
could call 157, a hotline created for migrant workers who are
victims of exploitation and other offenses.
As part of its counter-trafficking program with
the Turkish Government, the IOM Turkey launched in 2005 the 157
helpline for rescue and assistance of trafficked individuals and a
nationwide information campaign on human trafficking.
To date, the 157 helpline has provided directed
assistance to more than 200 victims of trafficking.
With warm response by the Filipino community,
Ambassador Guinomla announced that the embassy would hold a similar
program for Filipino migrants in Istanbul in the near future.
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