ASEAN Framework Agreement on Visa Exemption (AFAVE) and Cross-Border Trafficking in Persons: The Case of Filipino Tourist-Worker

Abstract

The Philippines is one of the major labor-sending countries in Southeast Asia. Its government regulates Overseas Filipino Workers by requiring an Overseas Employment Certificate issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration prior deployment abroad. However, some Filipino migrant workers bypass this legal process and purportedly leave the country as tourists, hence, they are referred to as “tourist-workers”. Their undocumented or improperly documented status makes them vulnerable to trafficking in persons. Furthermore, tourist-workers‘ easily pose as tourists to the Philippine Immigration through the ASEAN Framework Agreement on Visa Exemption (AFAVE) that grants ASEAN citizens seamless entry to visit ASEAN member states (AMS). Hence, the study aimed to recommend policies to counter the misuse of AFAVE, and generally, the Tourist-Worker Scheme (TWS) to mitigate cross-border trafficking. Moreover, the study described the phenomenon and its characteristics through person-to-person interviews with Travel Control Enforcement Unit officers and their reports to Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking of possible victims who attempted to use AFAVE during 2017 and 2018 at Ninoy Aquino International Airport. The results revealed that AFAVE is commonly used by tourist-workers to transit in AMS like Singapore, Thailand, and Malaysia for undisclosed destination countries, particularly United Arab Emirates and Qatar. Majority of them belong to the vulnerable female working population groups who are likely to become household workers. Moreover, some tourist-workers travel through sponsorship via legal documents like Affidavit of Support and Guarantee (AOSG). At the end of the study, the following policies were recommended: (a) intergovernmental agreement among Philippines and other AMS for strict implementation of AFAVE; (b) scrupulous issuance of work permits to Filipinos who arrived using AFAVE; (c) stringent monitoring of AOSG issuances; and (d) broaden information dissemination about the TWS especially to vulnerable Filipino communities