Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers have intercepted 11 suspected human trafficking victims who attempted to leave the country disguised as tourists at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
BI port operations chief Grifton Medina disclosed that since last week a total of 11 victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking at the NAIA terminal 3 alone, after officers discovered that the passengers were illegally recruited to work abroad without proper documents.
“All of them were bound for countries other than what they presented, in an apparent effort to mislead immigration officers about their destination and purpose of travel,” Medina said.
He added the plan is for the victims to depart Manila as tourists and upon reaching the next port would be handed their working visas and instructed to proceed via a connecting flight to their final work destinations.
Anthony Lopez, head of the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) at NAIA 3, reported that last May 19, two passengers bound for Singapore were prevented from boarding their flights after it was found that they were actually bound for Doha, Qatar to work.
Two days later, BI-TCEU personnel intercepted another group of seven females disguised as tourists bound for Brunei for a vacation.
“They admitted during questioning that their final destination is Malaysia where they were recruited to work as waitresses,” Lopez said.
The latest interception involved two passengers last May 27 who were stopped during their attempt to leave for Japan with their recruiter.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente reminded Filipinos not to fall to such recruitment schemes that involve misrepresentation and deceit.
“These illegal recruiters only want to earn, but once a worker needs assistance, they suddenly disappear,” the BI chief said. (Jun Ramirez)
