Trafficking victim pays P200K for freedom

The Bureau of Immigration reported that a male trafficking victim was repatriated on 22 September after being forced to work as a scammer for a Chinese company in Myanmar.

The authorities identified the victim as "Gio", 33 years old. He left the country in September last year with two other friends, claiming that they were merely traveling to Thailand for a vacation.

However, the victim admitted after his repatriation that he was recruited by a certain "Liza" whom he met on Facebook. Liza offered him a customer service representative job with a monthly salary of up to P100,000. The victim admitted to accepting the offer.

Gio said that his recruiter asked him to pay P20,000 for his travel expenses, which were deducted from his salary.

He added that after arriving in Thailand, he was transferred to Myawaddy, Myanmar, which is close to the border of Thailand.

According to Gio, he was forced to work as an online love scammer by attracting foreign victims to invest in pseudo-cryptocurrency accounts. He received a salary of P60,000 a month for six months, far from what was promised to him by his recruiter.

He was only able to go back home after collecting P200,000 from his friends and family to pay his company for his release.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that the same modus has been observed since last year, and victims are often promised with high salaries but end up in debt.

As early as October 2022, the BI chief had already sounded the alarm on the modus targeting Filipinos to work for companies that operate online scams, such as catfishing.

Tansingco added that this is a case of double trafficking, wherein the victims are trafficked by making them agree through false promises, and then they will be forced to be part of a scamming syndicate, making it hard for them to seek help and repatriation.

The National Bureau of Investigation and the Overseas Workers Welfare Administration provided assistance to the victim.