Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Mactan-Cebu International Airport (MCIA) rescued 17 human trafficking victims who were illegally recruited to work as household service workers (HSW) in the Middle East.
BI port operations chief Grifton Medina said the female passengers were disguised as tourists when intercepted on Oct. 16 and 17 before they could board their flights to Hong Kong and Macau en route to their final destinations in the United Arab Emirates and Qatar.
“It appears that these victims were recruited by a syndicate which separately booked them on several flights in order to mislead our immigration officers on the purpose of their trip,” Medina said.
He said the BI’s intensified campaign against trafficking at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), prompted the syndicates to shift their operations to other exit ports.
Ma. Asuncion Palma-Gil, BI-MCIA’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) head, said 17 passengers were offloaded from five different flights and that 13 of them were hired to work in Dubai while the other four were bound for Qatar.
“They all admitted having UAE and Qatari visas in their possession and that they were recruited by individuals they only met via Facebook or through their people they know currently working in Dubai and Doha,” Palma-Gil said.
She added the passengers were not familiar with their travel itinerary.
The women were turned over to the MCIA Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance and further investigation. (Jun Ramirez)