Trafficking victims being told to tell ‘ridiculous’ stories just to dodge BI scrutiny
Human trafficking syndicates and illegal recruiters would always come up with "ridiculous" stories for their victims to tell immigration officers so they could leave the Philippines for other countries.
But immigration officers have been trained and "are alert" to discern which "are truths from falsehoods," the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Sunday, Nov. 19.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco cited the case of a woman who attempted to leave for Singapore at the Clark International Airport (CIA) in Pampanga.
The woman, whose name was withheld, claimed she won a raffle conducted by a travel agency in Dubai, and that the prize was a holiday package that included a free plane ticket and three-day hotel accommodation in Dubai.
However, when asked about the details of the contest and how she won "she was not familiar about how she won nor about how she was declared a winner,” Tansingco said.
Prior to the case of the "raffle winner," the BI that a woman was also intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA). She claimed to be “working for a merchandise company in the Philippines, and even provided fake bank documents with clear grammatical errors.”
“It was later found that she was recruited to work as an entertainer in a bar in Singapore,” BI said.
It said the two victims of human trafficking have been turned over to the Inter-agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to initiate an investigation against their recruiters.
Tansingco said that “illegal recruiters are now resorting to providing their victims ridiculous stories to present to immigration.”
He said human trafficking syndicates "have been resorting to providing victims with stories to pose as regular tourists to countries other than their final work destinations.”
“There have been many cases of illegal recruitment victims who were initially sent as tourists before they end up working or are flown to a third country for employment,” he also said.