30 undocumented workers arrested on flight to Dubai
MANILA: A total of 30 undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) disguised as tourists bound for the Middle East were barred from leaving the country by the Bureau of Immigration-Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (BI-TCEU) at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manilla.
According to a senior BI official, the passengers, were about to board an Emirates Airlines flight to Dubai when they were intercepted by immigration personnel.
BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said in a statement, “All of them initially claimed they were going to visit a friend or relative in Dubai for a vacation and presented as proof their tourist visas and return tickets.
But inconsistencies in their statements prompted the immigration officers to doubt their purpose, so they were referred to the TCEU for secondary inspection,” he added.
The apprehended OFWs were 18 women and 12 men. The OFWs later admitted that they were going to work abroad and their travel documents were only given to them that day by their handler, who met them outside the airport.
Erwin Ortañez, BI-TCEU Chief, reported that with the exception of one passenger who presented a fake visa, all of them had valid tourist visas issued by the UAE’s Ministry of Interior.
He said 29 of the passengers stated that they were hired to work as waiters and waitresses in various Dubai hotels while
The apprehended OFWs admitted that they were going to work abroad and their travel documents were only given to them that day by their handler, who met them outside the airport.
one of them said his final destination is Baghdad, Iraq where he was recruited as kitchen supervisor.
All of them were turned over to the National Bureau of Investigation to facilitate the filing of human trafficking charges against their recruiters.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente lauded the apprehension of the passengers, noting that it is a big leap in their campaign against human trafficking.
“As a result of this incident, we were able to rescue our kababayans from the risk of being abused and exploited abroad, which they are prone to suffer due to their status as undocumented workers,” he said.
He urged frontline immigration officers to continue to be vigilant amid repeated attempts by trafficking syndicates to send their victims out of the country.