Typhoon Haiyan: 'Philippines women at risk of rape, trafficking'

Manila, Nov 13: As the death toll in the

' Typhoon Haiyan rose to 2,275 on Wednesday, a UK official said that the "

must be protected against threat of

, and trafficking".

According to The Telegraph report, UK's international development secretary Justine Greening, who is managing UK's response to the disaster in Philippines said that "not enough is being done to protect the women and girls from the looming threat of violence, rape, forced marriages and human trafficking".

"We are failing thousand of girls at risk of rape and trafficking," the newspaper quoted him as saying.

"After previous emergencies in the Philippines, we have seen an increase in violence against women and girls and in particular the trafficking of girls", he further said.

Greening said, "Hundreds of thousands of women and girls will face the very real risk of violence, including sexual exploitation and abuse, rape, forced marriage and trafficking."

Violeta Duzar, 57, a survivor from typhoon-hit ruined Tacloban city, told a news agency, "It's the criminals who escaped from the prison. They're raping the women. Tacloban is a dead city."

There were also reports that looting turned deadly on Wednesday and survivors panicked over shortages of food, water and medicine, some digging up underground water pipes and smashing them open.

A woman survivor said that criminals, who fled from prisons are raping women.

Earlier on Wednesday, the National Disaster Risk Reduction and Management Council revealed the number of deaths at 1,833, which had made Typhoon Haiyan one of the five deadliest natural disasters in the east Asian island nation.

The deadly storm has affected seven million people across 41 provinces, said sources in the disaster office.

Nearly 1,50,000 houses were either damaged or affected while over 5.8 lakh people were displaced.

Eighty people were reportedly missing. Infrastructure worth USD 4.6 million and agricultural crops worth USD 5.5 million have been damaged in the disaster.

OneIndia News