MANILA, Philippines — Filipino migrant rights watchdog Migrante is urging officials of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to "seriously and honestly implement" the new "offloading" guidelines issued by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT).

Last week, the IACAT issued the new guidelines after Migrante’s international chapters in the Middle East, particularly in the United Arab Emirates, last year complained about cases of arbitrary offloading of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) and their relatives who are using visit visas despite presenting to Philippine immigration officials an authenticated Affidavit of Support (AoS).

Various Filipino migrant groups said many OFWs and their relatives were forced to shell out money in ex-change for being allowed to proceed to their flight bound for UAE.

Migrante-Middle East regional coordinator John Leonard Monterona noted that the new ICAT guidelines require a passenger to go through inspection stages.

“Every passenger, including OFWs and their kin, are required to undergo primary inspection wherein passport, visa, and ticket will be checked. This is actually the normal procedure prior to embarkation,” Monterona pointed out.

He said that what was incorporated in the guidelines is giving BI officials authority to conduct secondary inspection aimed of "protecting vulnerable victims of human trafficking."

“So, the new guidelines now vested immigration officials to further conduct inspections involving passengers whom they think are vulnerable to human trafficking noting into account the age, educational attainment, and financial capability to travel of the passengers,” Monterona said.

Those who are subjected to secondary inspection are required to fill up the BI Border Control Questionnaire (BCQ).

Monterona cautioned that BI officials must know how to properly differentiate "tourist workers" from "direct hires."

“We are for an effective policy or mechanism that would combat illegal recruitment and human trafficking, but this must not be at the expense of our fellow workers’ curtailment of their right to travel and earn a living abroad. Thus, we are calling BI officials to seriously and honestly implement the new immigration guidelines,” Monterona said.