7 trafficking victims rescued at NAIA

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the passengers were stopped from leaving the country in three separate instances at Terminals 3 and 1 of the NAIA last week. (File Photo: Bureau of Immigration, Republic of the Philippines/Facebook)

MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Friday the rescue of seven suspected victims of human trafficking at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after they were intercepted for having spurious travel documents.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the passengers were stopped from leaving the country in three separate instances at Terminals 3 and 1 of the NAIA last week.

“These fraud syndicates continue to ignore our warnings. There will be no letup in our campaign against human trafficking and their victims will not be allowed to leave if they are caught,” Morente said in a statement.

The latest interception involved five passengers who pretended to be tourists in attempting to leave for Malaysia last Oct. 5 at NAIA 3.

“They admitted paying their recruiters fees ranging from PHP125,000 to PHP175,000 each in exchange for processing their jobs and travel papers to Australia, which was their final destination,” BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina said.

The passengers were reportedly accompanied by a woman who was also stopped due to pending cases of estafa and illegal recruitment.

“They also presented fraudulently manufactured employee IDs which were given to them by their handlers to make it appear that they are gainfully employed here and are thus legitimate tourists,” Medina added.

On Oct. 2, the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) members also stopped from leaving an underage overseas Filipino worker, who misrepresented her age by falsifying her date of birth.

Earlier, it was reported that a Malaysia-bound woman was intercepted also at NAIA 3 for having a spurious United Kingdom visa and tampered pages on her passport last Sept. 24.

“We also discovered that she was already previously barred from leaving the country on suspicion of being a tourist worker,” BI-TCEU chief Timotea Barizo said.

All seven passengers were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance and further investigation.