Bureau of Immigration (BI) inspectors at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have stopped from leaving the country three more suspected human trafficking victims, including two women bound for Lebanon and Syria.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the passengers were intercepted at NAIA Terminals 1 and 3 last June 9 and 10 as they were about to board their flights to the Middle East.
Tansingco said members of the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) decided to offload the passengers from their flights after they admitted the real purpose of the travel during secondary inspection.
The BI chief said they all initially claimed traveling as tourists and one of them even pretended to be a nanny for a 16-year-old boy who is her supposed companion in her trip.
The fake nanny later confessed that she is not a tourist but would be traveling to Syria to work as a domestic helper.
Another passenger claimed she was vacationing in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia but later admitted she was going to Lebanon where she had previously worked as a household help.
The third passenger presented a fake Saudi Arabian visa but eventually surrendered her United Arab Emirates (UAE) visa and said she was going to Dubai to work as a maid.
“In all these cases, the victims recounted that they were recruited via the social media by illegal recruiters who processed all their travel documents,” Tansingco said.
“It is clear that they are all victims of human trafficking, thus we could not allow them to leave,” he added.
The three victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for investigation.
Last May 20, the bureau also intercepted four suspected victims of human trafficking at NAIA who were recruited to be workers for an online casino in Cambodia.