Immigration authorities at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) have stopped the departure of three undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFW) leaving on separate flights bound for Dubai and Greece.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) suspected the trio of having been victims of human trafficking and illegal recruitment.
Reporting to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, Port Operations Acting Chief Grifton Medina said the passengers were intercepted last week before they could board their flights to the Middle East and Europe.
“Their travel documents indicated all of them have intention to work illegally as undocumented workers,” he said.
“The OFWs were prevented from leaving as they were victims of human trafficking syndicates,” Medina added.
The BI’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit Head, Ma. Timotea Barizo, said the Dubai-bound passenger was intercepted last July 25, 2020, after the immigration officer noticed that her overseas employment certificate (OEC) was not validated by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration-Labor Assistance Center desk at the airport.
Immigration officials said the OEC stamp was tampered with as it was issued to someone else other than the said passenger.
The victim, confronted with the evidence, admitted that her trip was processed by her handlers and that her documents were only given to her at the airport.
Barizo also reported that the two Greece-bound passengers who were intercepted last Sunday, August 2, 2020, also presented fraudulent travel documents and fake OECs.
The duo admitted that their documents were only handed to them at the airport, saying they were recruited to work in Athens.
The duo said they each paid their handler P95,000 in return for facilitating their trip and processing their documents.
All three undocumented workers were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Human Trafficking for further investigation.