GABRIELA NETWORK CELEBRATE NY STATE ANTI-TRAFFICKING BILL VICTORY; URGES VIGILANCE IN IMPLEMENTATION AND ACTION FOR AN EVEN MORE COMPREHENSIVE LAW THAT INCLUDES BRIDE TRAFFICKING

PRESS RELEASE

For Immediate Release
6 June 2007

Contact: Dorotea Mendoza, Secretary General, GABRIELA Network
tel: (718) 753-0257; email: secgen@gabnet.org

New York, NY, June 6, 2007?GABRIELA Network (GABNet), a Philippine-US women's solidarity mass organization, welcomes the passage of a new and stronger anti-trafficking law in New York, signed today by Governor Eliot Spitzer. Though the victory will surely be celebrated, GABNet stresses that the work against human trafficking is far from over.

The new anti-trafficking law makes labor trafficking and sex trafficking felony crimes that could carry a prison sentence of up to 7 and 25 years, respectively. The law also expands the penalties on patronizing prostitution and ?prostitution tourism? including to a ?foreign jurisdiction and regardless of the legality of prostitution in said foreign jurisdiction.? In terms of assistance to victims, the law provides emergency temporary housing, access to healthcare, drug addiction treatment, translation services, and job training. It also requires law enforcement, in coordination with the federal government, to assist victims in obtaining special visas, including the T-visa, that allow them to stay in the US.

The NY law may be the strongest one in the country, but one major disappointment for GABNet is the legislation?s exclusion of the mail-order bride industry as a form of trafficking. According to estimates, roughly 5,000 women from the Philippines enter the US every year as wives or fianc?s. There are numerous documented cases of abuse and exploitation of women bought and sold through these commercial ?marriage? transactions. One such case is of a Filipina who endured two years of torture and imprisonment in the hands of a Philadelphia man who was later convicted as a serial killer. Some mail-order brides have been murdered by their husbands: Susana Remerata murdered in Seattle by husband Timothy Blackwell; Emelita Villa murdered in Texas by husband Jack Reeves. Many mail-order bride agencies, who operate mostly via the internet, boast of giving a 90-day trial through a fianc? visa.

GABNet Secretary General Dorotea Mendoza says, ?While we indeed laud Governor Spitzer and others in Albany for finally putting together a relatively strong legislation against trafficking, we must remain vigilant in ensuring that the law is implemented effectively. And we have to continue to insist that state and federal definitions of trafficking must include the selling and buying of wives.?

For GABNet, the only real way to end human trafficking is ?to tackle its roots?poverty and despair caused by a lopsided patriarchal socio-economic global system.? Holding local and federal governments responsible, demanding strong legislation is only a part of ?the long fight to un-root human trafficking.? GABNet Chair Dr. Annalisa Enrile explains, ?Unless we go at the real cause, everything else is the old Band-Aid treatment. Why, for example, do we have 750,000 Filipinas leaving their homeland every year, many of whom are or end-up being trafficked? What is the cause of that out-migration??

?We should remember that this law is not only due to the work of politicians,? says GABNet NY/NJ Chapter Coordinator Olivia Quinto Reyes. ?It came from advocates and activists. It?s a testament to the power of collective effort,? Ms. Quinto Reyes adds, referring to the NY State Anti-Trafficking Coalition, which has pushed for the legislation since 2004 and of which GABNet NY/NJ is a member.

Since its inception in 1989, GABNet has worked against trafficking. In 1997, the local GABNet chapter in New York launched the Purple Rose Campaign (PRC) against trafficking of Filipino women and children. The PRC is now in 11 countries.