(Eagle News) — The Bureau of Immigration has urged the public to exercise caution amid what it said were the emerging human trafficking trends amid the COVID-19 pandemic.
In a statement, Immigration bureau Travel Control and Enforcement Unit Head Ma. Timotea Barizo said one of the most common ‘modus operandi’ of human traffickers is the falsification of Overseas Employment Certificates (OECs) and the subsequent tampering with Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) forms.
“There are instances when departing passengers would present fake stamps supposedly to appear that their documents were cleared by the POEA,” she said.
Another modus, she said, involves the use of counterfeit or invalid working visas of either first-time OFWs, or of Balik-Manggagawa or vacationing OFWs.
“In some cases, we find OECs that are valid but do not match the visa of the passenger. This is also considered illegal, as it lists the OFW under a certain job, only to end with a different work, with a significantly lower salary than what was agreed upon,” Barizo shared.
Another scheme, meanwhile, involves the giving of valid OECs and employment documents, and the giving of a separate visa to victims to work for a different employer in another country.
The passengers, the bureau said, would usually present employment documents with job sites in Maldives, Saudi Arabia, Bahrain, Qatar, or Albania, but with the United Arab Emirates as their actual final destination.
Barizo said in addition, the recruitment of underaged Filipinos to work as household service workers (HSWs) abroad is still rampant.
“These passengers, mostly women aged 17 to 21, usually assume the identity of other people and present fraudulently acquired passports in the airports to meet the minimum age requirement for HSWs of 23 years old,” the bureau said.
According to Barizo, some passengers would also use marriage certificates to pretend to visit their alleged spouses abroad.
“Upon inspection by our forensic documents laboratory, the certificates are found to be genuine, but the marriages were sham, the victims did not even know their supposed spouses,” Barizo said.
She said that the common practice of attempting to use tourist visas to work abroad still remains.
“Victims are being enticed with high-paying jobs abroad with fake visas, made-up stories, and other fraudulently-acquired travel documents. It is disappointing that this happening even during these trying times,” Immigration bureau chief Jaime Morente.
“This is a type of modern-day slavery. They will entice you with a promise of a better life, only to end up heavily indebted, and sometimes even stranded abroad. Do not fall prey to such schemes. Aspiring OFWs should protect themselves by following the law and observing the policies aimed at protecting their rights,” Morente added.
Morente said that in 2021, the BI foiled a total of 688 attempts of human trafficking and illegal recruitment in the country’s international ports.
