The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has recently lauded the collaborative efforts of government agencies to combat human trafficking amid the still rising number of incidents recorded in the past months.

BI commissioner Norman Tansingco said that this comes after the Philippines has maintained its Tier 1 status in the US Department of State’s Trafficking in Persons (TIP) Report for the ninth year in a row.

The BI chief has expressed gratitude to members of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) as he claimed that for the ninth consecutive year, the country has maintained its renowned position, indicating that it fully meets the minimal benchmarks for human trafficking elimination.

As an important aspect of the IACAT, the BI stressed that it will not quit in its fight against human trafficking and it will intensify its efforts against the crime.

In the report, the US Department of State described how traffickers exploit technology to make it easier for their victims to be trafficked.