Emerging recruitment scheme bared

The Bureau of Immigration announced on Tuesday that its airport officers had discovered a nascent trafficking operation that enables victims to be sent to places of employment different from those listed on legitimate employment documents.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that recently, the immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport intercepted three travelers. Even though the documentation they showed stated they were going back to their previous employers, two of them acknowledged that they were headed for Dubai.

According to Tansingco, this modus operandi aims to mislead their immigration officers, as the victims do have valid employment permits to a certain country where they had previously worked, but actually, they intend to work somewhere else.

He added that the modus targets OFWs with expiring contracts and offers them to work in other Middle Eastern countries, which they would then use to depart.

The BI chief commended the immigration officers at the NAIA who stumbled on the scheme due to their vigilance and the competence they displayed in detecting this new ploy by human traffickers who victimize OFWs.

In a report given to Tansingco, the BI's Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section at the NAIA cited the case of three passengers who were recently encountered at the airport and were victimized by the said scheme.

Two of the passengers, both women bound for Dubai, were stopped from leaving at the NAIA 3 last 1 November after they admitted that the valid employment documents to Saudi Arabia they presented were just for show as their actual intention is to work in Dubai.