7 Pinoy tourist-workers stopped at NAIA

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently barred seven undocumented Filipino workers from leaving the country at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after attempting to depart and pretending to be tourists.

All seven passengers were deferred from leaving after being intercepted on separate occasions last week at NAIA Terminals 2 and 3.

According to the bureau, they were not allowed to leave after they admitted that they are not tourists, but are actually going abroad to work, during the secondary inspection by the BI-TCEU.

A report submitted to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said two passengers were intercepted at NAIA 2 last 14 September as they were about to depart for Hong Kong.

The two were barred after an Immigration officer noticed they were traveling with a woman whose name is on the bureau’s alert list for suspected human traffickers facilitating the deployment of undocumented Filipino workers abroad.

On 15 September, four passengers bound for Malta were apprehended also at the NAIA 2 departure area after they presented questionable documents regarding the purpose of their travel. They initially claimed they were attending a symposium, but later admitted during interview that they were hired to work as maids in Malta. They said that each of them paid P500,000 to their handler in return for the processing of all their travel documents and visas.