This study presents a thorough discussion of the plight of trafficked girl-children (female persons below 18 years old). It assesses the existing policy and program environment on child trafficking and recommends enhanced or modified policies to address the problem.

The study chronicles the experiences of 24 girl-children between 14 and 17 years old, who were illegally recruited and trafficked from the Visayas to work as domestic helpers, entertainers, and factory workers in Metro Manila, Bulacan, and Olongapo City. In their places of employment, they suffered inhuman working conditions. They worked for long hours in dirty, noisy, and poorly ventilated factories, endured physical and verbal abuse, and succumbed to sexual advances of their employers and customers. Consequently, they experienced overfatigue, contracted sexually transmitted diseases and common illnesses, and developed back pains.

According to the study, the main contributing factors to trafficking of girl-children are poverty, unemployment, low wages, uneven rural and urban economic development, demand for children’s services in certain industries, the societal expectation that every household member should contribute to the family income, inefficient enforcement of anti-child labor laws, and prevailing ideologies of a patriarchal society.

Despite the laws on the protection of children, child traffickers still roam around undetected, victimizing thousands of unsuspecting girl-children in the provinces.  The study posits that weak law enforcement accounts for this alarming situation.

 In the absence of an efficient system of enforcing the law, the paper recommends the launching of community-based information campaign towards providing informed choices to parents and children; organizing a Barangay Council for the Protection of Children to coordinate trafficking prevention activities; providing incentives to poor parents who send their children to school; requiring the submission of barangay clearance from recruiters; monitoring the exit and entry points commonly used in child trafficking operations; strengthening the rescue and labor inspection programs; establishing a legal protection center for working children; improving the services of government-run temporary shelters; and formulating a comprehensive program framework for the problem of child trafficking.