International Justice Mission is a human rights agency that secures justice for victims of slavery, sexual exploitation and other forms of violent oppression. IJM lawyers, investigators and aftercare professionals work with local officials to ensure immediate victim rescue and aftercare, to prosecute perpetrators and to promote functioning public justice systems. Based in Washington, D.C., IJM works in 13 countries around the world.
IJM has been combating human trafficking in the Philippines for nine years. IJM’s four-fold purpose is to rescue the victim from the abuse and exploitation, provide aftercare assistance to the victim, prosecute the perpetrators and hold them accountable for their acts, and seek structural change to prevent the exploitation from happening again. Since 2001, IJM investigators and lawyers have worked with government partners and non-governmental organizations to successfully rescue 208 victims, arrest 175 suspects, close down 30 bars, and convict 8 persons of trafficking.