Last modified: Wednesday, June 23, 2010
Human trafficking experts to visit IU School of Law-Indianapolis
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
June 24, 2010
INDIANAPOLIS -- George Edwards, international human rights law expert at the Indiana University School of Law-Indianapolis, and the school's Program in International Human Rights Law are hosting two law enforcers and a nongovernment organization official from the Philippines on Friday (June 25) to discuss the global human trafficking issue.
The visit, held from 3-4 p.m. in room 267 of Inlow Hall, 530 W. New York St., in Indianapolis, is sponsored by the U.S. State Department pursuant to its Countering Trafficking in Persons project for the Philippines. The event is open to the public.
The three visitors include:
- Yehlen Chiu Agus, agent with the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI), the Philippines' premier law enforcement agency. She works with the NBI's Anti-Fraud and Computer Crimes Division.
- Girlie Gay Sequino Sanado, a decorated officer of the Philippine National Police (PNP), where she earned four medals of merit and almost 30 commendations from the police force and other government entities. Her achievement as the topnotcher in the PNP Junior Leadership Course remains unsurpassed to this day.
- Jerome Aguila Alcantara, head of the resource center of the Visayan Forum Foundation Inc. (VFF), which provides reintegration programs benefitting trafficking victims. Alcantara supervises the VFF's national and regional planning and consultation conferences for law enforcers and government agencies to help prevent trafficking in persons, especially children.
Agus undertakes undercover missions to break up international human smuggling syndicates operating in the Southeast Asian archipelago. In 2007, she and her fellow NBI operatives arrested in an entrapment operation a Malaysian and a Filipino national for recruiting young women in the southern islands of Mindanao to work as entertainers without securing government permits. The NBI agents rescued 10 females, including children, following the entrapment.
Agus also conducts raids of cybersex dens in Metro Manila, the country's national capital region, and participates in the rescue of female trafficking survivors.
Sanado handles women's and children's cases as an officer of the PNP Women's and Children's Concerns Desk. Her crime-solving expertise earned her the Country's Outstanding Policemen in Service (COPS) award in 2007. Sanado also sits as a regular member of the Philippines' National Technical Working Group on Anti-Trafficking, sponsored by USAID/American Solidarity Center.
Alcantara has participated in various trainings and consultation sessions in India, Thailand and Nigeria to help curb the exploitation of child laborers, especially girls.
The three are visiting Indiana from June 24-28 as part of the U.S. State Department's International Visitor Leadership Program. The State Department wants to help the visitors learn the latest "methods and best practices to help prevent trafficking in persons." It also seeks to share with them new "anti-trafficking law enforcement techniques" and "methods for effective inter-agency communication."
The International Institute Graduate School arranged their program.
Coordinated with the Program in International Human Rights Law by Peter Kirkwood of the International Center of Indianapolis, the event is open to the public. Refreshments will be served. Please RSVP to Perfecto Boyet Caparas at pcaparas@iupui.edu.
