Irish Priest on Mission to Save Orphans from Being Sold for Sex in the Typhoon Aftermath
By Cathal McMahon
An Irish priest told yesterday how dangerous traffickers have lured children out of a typhoon ravaged city and forced them to work in brothels. Fr Shay Cullen revealed many of the Filipino children are then pimped out to Irish and other westerners as sex slaves. The Dublin priest, who set up the Preda Foundation in 1974, has devoted his life to rescuing child sex victims and bringing their abusers to court. And now, in an exclusive interview with the Irish Mirror, the 71-year-old cleric has revealed how dangerous predators have exploited children orphaned by Typhoon Haiyan a year ago. He said: “We travelled to Tacloban after the typhoon like every other charity to help with the emergency. “But very soon it was reported to us about the trafficking of the orphans. Immediately I got information about the orphans of the dead people – 6,000 people died overnight in that terrible storm.” Speaking in Tacloban on the first anniversary of Haiyan, Fr Cullen told how depraved traffickers exploited the youngsters’ dire situation. He explained: “These children would be very vulnerable to being victims of trafficking and sold into the sex industry. They are desperate. People are coming here to teenagers, offering them jobs as domestics, working in hotels. But the poor people don’t know what’s happening. In most cases they are maybe given a month’s salary in advance. So now the child is trapped and in danger. “Bonded labour already, and they can put them anywhere they want, they put them in brothels.” Fr Cullen said just a month ago the police in Manila rescued six young children from a brothel in Tacloban. He added: “We know it is going on and we are able to rescue some children.” The Columban Missionary moved to the Philippines in 1969 and set up the Preda foundation five years later. Since then he’s been a champion of the downtrodden and a thorn in the side of the sex mafia. He regularly receives death threats from traffickers and the sordid paedophiles who visit the developing country to abuse children. When their attempts to silence him with violence failed the vile thugs tried, but failed, to sue him in court. Using covert cameras, retired police officers and trusted tipsters Fr Cullen has been able to infiltrate and bring down some of the most vile perverts the world has ever seen.
Describing Preda’s work, Fr Cullen said: “We have the sex mafia who are part of the trafficking network taking young girls into sex bars and clubs and even putting them into the cyber sex business which can be done online on camera with foreigners abroad.” “We have rescued children from them and bring them, with the help of the trusted police and our own social workers into our home and they are healed in a way. “It takes more than a year, a year-and-a-half. The child recovers, gets a sense of dignity, higher self-esteem, gets empowered and want to look for justice in most cases. “And so we then pursue a case against the sex traffickers, if they happen to be local or the sex mafia if they are international.” “They can be Irish, British all nationalities come here.” Fr Cullen is based out of Olongapo, about two hours from Manila, but set up his operation in Tacloban in the aftermath of Typhoon Haiyan – known locally as Yolanda. There he has created a school for the orphans of the super typhoon and they have cared for 88 young children at risk. He was back in Tacloban this week to mark the first anniversary of the largest storm ever to reach landfall. Haiyan killed more than 6,300, and left four million homeless. The bodies of over 1,000 people have not been recovered. Fr Cullen said those orphaned by the disaster need to be closely cared for. He explained: “We rescued 88 and have 88 orphans in our care at the moment. We found relatives willing to be foster parents and every month we send them money. “About two thirds are female and they would be very vulnerable to being victims of human trafficking.” Being a Catholic priest Fr Cullen might be expected to forgive those who take part in the sex trade. However, he insisted forgiveness is not his to offer. He said: “First of all it is the victims who have been raped, abused, beaten and their childhoods robbed who forgive. And for them it is not a question of, ‘can you forgive?’ It is a question of whether the abuser will repent. “Will he confess his sin and take penance which should be done behind bars for a long time so other children will not be victimised by him? “When he has truly confessed everything, you can forgive him because he’s repented and taken penance.”
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