The Philippine government is conducting “clearing operations” to round up and detain hundreds of homeless people, including children, so that they will not be visible during this week’s APEC meeting, Human Rights Watch said on Monday.
More than 3,000 visiting government officials, business leaders and journalists are to visit the Philippine capital this week for a meeting of the APEC forum that is to include US President Barack Obama, Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平), Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and more than a dozen other national leaders.
The Philippine government denied that people were being held against their will or that homeless people were taken off the street only for the APEC forum.
Photo: AFP
Thousands of police officers and other security officials have been deployed across Manila in preparation for the gathering. Many of the main roads through the city have blocked lanes or are completely closed. Residents of high-rise buildings near where the world leaders will pass have been told to close their curtains and stay off balconies. Most government offices and many private companies have closed for the week.
The preparations have included city beautification programs, including painting public areas.
Human Rights Watch said that this had been extended to homeless people being taken off the streets against their will and detained in centers across the capital until after the world leaders leave the country.
“Abusing Manila’s homeless population shouldn’t be part of the price tag for the Philippines government to host high-profile international events,” said Phelim Kine, Human Rights Watch’s Hong Kong-based deputy director for Asia. “APEC delegates should make it clear to their Philippine hosts that abusive ‘clearing operations’ against Manila’s most vulnerable residents only tarnish the reputations of the Philippines and APEC.”
According to Human Rights Watch, police and other government officials have in the past week detained at least 141 street children in centers across Manila and in surrounding cities.
The New York-based group said in a statement on Monday that their researcher had interviewed children and adults, including disabled people, who say they were treated roughly when taken off the streets and were not being allowed to leave the government centers where they were staying.
Alicia Bonoan, a director in the Philippine Department of Social Welfare and Development who oversees the agency’s activities in the capital, said in a telephone interview that the government’s work to help homeless people took place year round and did not involve involuntary detention.
“It’s not a clearing operation, and it’s not related to APEC,” she said. “It is a regular outreach program being done by local governments. Why do the media only look into this during APEC and when the pope visits? This is being done all year around.”
The government has admitted clearing the streets of homeless people during previous high-profile events. During the January visit by Pope Francis to the Philippines, the government rounded up dozens of homeless families and brought them to a resort in Batangas, south of Manila, a senior government official said during a Philippine Senate hearing on the issue.
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