(Eagle News) — The Bureau of Immigration on Sunday, Aug. 8, said it stopped six suspected human trafficking victims from leaving for the United Arab Emirates.
The bureau said the six, all women, were intercepted at the immigration departure area of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 on Wednesday after it was found the UAE visas pasted on their passports were counterfeit.
“During primary inspection, they claimed that they were balik-manggagawa, or overseas Filipino workers merely returning to their old employers. They alleged to have been directly hired as domestic household workers, but they were unable to show any proof of such claim,” a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente by the BI Intelligence Division said.
According to the bureau, the documents were subsequently submitted to the bureau forensic document laboratory, which later confirmed that the presented visas were spurious.
The six were later turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for further investigation and filing of charges against their recruiters.
“The BI will not allow them to take advantage of the pandemic to prey on our poor countrymen who are lured to become victims of their racket because of poverty,” the bureau said.