An overseas Filipino worker was held by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport by pretending to be the guardian of a minor whom she would accompany to visit the child’s mother in Macau.
BI-Travel Control and Enforcement Unit chief Erwin Ortanez said that posing as “guardian” of minors to accompany them abroad is a new ploy by a syndicate to illegally recruit Filipino workers abroad.
The female passenger was a former household worker in Saudi Arabia but did not finish her contract there for an unknown reason and returned to the Philippines.
Immigration official said that a certain Lucille M. Capoy sponsored her trip to Macau to accompany her daughter but later found out that the former OFW will work as a “waitress” in Macau.
The woman, identified only as “Jacky” admitted that she is not related to the minor but was able to get a travel permit from the Department of Social Welfare and Development to accompany the minor.
The victim claimed that she already paid a total of P13,000 to “Capoy’s” and agreed to a ploy by using the minor as scheme in the attempt to deceive the immigration officer at the airport.