Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have been ordered to tightly screen Vietnamese nationals entering the country following reports that some of their compatriots were victimized by syndicates and illegally recruited to work here.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente instructed the immigration officers to thoroughly screen arriving Vietnamese to make sure that the latter have legitimate purposes in traveling to the country.
Otherwise, he said those who could not satisfactorily explain their travel purpose should be turned back as they could be victims of human trafficking recruited by the said syndicate.
“The Philippines should not only stop being a source of human trafficking victims. We must also not allow our country to be a destination for them,” the BI chief declared.
Morente issued the order after the bureau stumbled upon the operations of a human trafficking syndicates that facilitates the travel to the Philippines of Vietnamese nationals hired to work as manual laborers in various places throughout the country. The syndicate’s activities were uncovered as a result of investigation conducted by BI intelligence agents on the 78 overstaying Vietnamese nationals who recently surrendered to the BI assisted by the Vietnamese embassy. (Jun Ramirez)