The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has rescued more than 680 victims of human trafficking and illegal recruitment last year.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the victims were part of the 13, 680 passengers who were disallowed from leaving the country by Immigration officers mostly for incomplete and improper travel papers.
The BI said its travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) classified 491 people as possible human trafficking victims and were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance and investigation.
On the other hand, a total of 197 other victims were turned over to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA), mostly for presenting fake, or questionable overseas work permits and job contracts.
“There is still a large number of minors and underage victims posing as legitimate workers that were intercepted, despite the pandemic and continuous warnings we have issued,” Morente sa
He said the interception included 326 minor and underage with 18 of them assumed the identities of other persons.
“Some common schemes that human traffickers and illegal recruiters used are the issuance of tampered visas to their victims, falsified marriages, the use of tourist visas and duping underage Filipinos to work as household workers,” said Morente.
“We have been issuing warnings to our kababayans against the dirty tricks of scammers and traffickers as they only give false promises and put their victims in danger,” Morente added.