Three alleged human trafficking victims were intercepted at Clark International Airport (CIA) while attempting to leave the country to perform as performers in South Korea without authorization, according to a report from the Bureau of Immigration (BI).

According to Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section (I-PROBES) officers, all of the victims were female. They originally claimed to be friends traveling to Thailand as tourists with another female companion on March 10.

BI officers noted conflicting statements and referred them for secondary inspection. The three victims admitted during the interview that their friend was actually their recruiter and that they were on their way to South Korea, where they were offered jobs as singers and offered them PHP 40,000 in monthly pay. 

The victims lamented that they wanted to process their documents legally, but their recruiter insisted that they pose as tourists and hide their final country of destination.

They also stated that their recruiter was supposed to go back to the Philippines by himself after escorting them to South Korea.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco warned aspiring overseas workers not to believe the false promises of recruiters. “There are numerous documented cases wherein victims are promised work as entertainers but end up in prostitution,” said Tansingco. “Aspiring workers should also protect themselves by ensuring that they only apply work through legal means,” he added.

All three victims and their alleged recruiter were turned over to the CIA Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (CIA-IACAT). Charges are expected to be filed against their recruiter following the incident.

Meanwhile, the Bureau also reported the arrest of fugitives wanted for money luadering and cybercrime in seperate operation.

The BI chief identified the two wanted fugitives as LiMing Hsiu, a 44-year-old Taiwanese national, and Joo Han Wong, a 39-year-old South Korean national, who were both recently arrested on separate operations in Makati and Parañaque by the BI Fugitive Search Unit (BI-FSU) operatives. 

According to BI-FSU acting chief Rendel Ryan Sy, Liu is wanted in Taiwan due to an arrest warrant that was issued against him by the Taichung district prosecutor’s office for allegedly violating his country’s money laundering act.

Prosecutors alleged that Liu is a ranking member of a syndicate involved in large-scale money laundering since last year when it operated multiple scamming centers in Taiwan and abroad that defrauded victims of more than P78 billion through its fraudulent schemes. 

As for Joo, the BI-Interpol unit disclosed that the South Korean became the subject of an Interpol red notice after the Seoul Dongbu district court issued a warrant for his arrest based on charges that he engaged in cybercrime activities.

Joo allegedly conspired with other suspects in developing a computer program that was used to hack and illegally obtain personal information from over 66,500 personal messaging application accounts.

The victims' data was eventually sold to a third party, which used it to employ voice phishing and other telecom fraud activities on many victims.  

Both Liu and Joo are already undocumented aliens, as their passports were already revoked by their respective governments.

Tansingco said Li and Joo will be deported to their home countries, where they are wanted by authorities to stand trial for serious crimes. They will also be included in the BI blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the country.

He added that the two arrested fugitives were currently detained at the BI Warden Facility in Camp Bagong Taguig City while awaiting their deportation proceedings.