BI seeks human trafficking probe

The order stemmed from the statement of a female victim presented by Senator Risa Hontiveros during her privileged speech last 21 November

The Bureau of Immigration on Tuesday afternoon announced that BI commissioner Norman Tansingco ordered an immediate investigation regarding on the of reports of Filipino trafficking victims being rescued from Myanmar.

The BI disclosed that the order stemmed from the statement of a female victim presented by Senator Risa Hontiveros during her privileged speech last 21 November.

According to the victim, she and 11 others were recruited via Facebook, where they saw advertisements on several job openings for call center agent and encoder positions for Thailand.

However, the victim relayed that they were forcibly transported to Myanmar to allegedly work as scammers and were trained to scam Western men to invest in fraudulent cryptocurrency accounts.

Tansingco stressed that they are coordinating with the Office of Senator Hontiveros to seek further information about the case and they are also interested to find out how these victims were able to depart despite stringent immigration assessment.