Immigration agents arrested a suspected member of a human trafficking syndicate who attempted to escort out of the country five of his victims with spurious travel documents.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the suspect and his victims were stopped from leaving the Ninoy Aquino International Airport as they were about to board a flight to Tokyo, Japan at the NAIA, Terminal 3.
BI-Port Operations chief Grifton Medina said the alleged courier and his companions were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for investigation and filing of appropriate charges.
The passengers’ names were not divulged, as the law prohibits the public disclosure names of suspected human trafficking victims.
According to Medina, the suspect’s attempt to spirit his victims abroad was foiled after immigration officers noticed inconsistencies in their answers to questions and doubted the authenticity of documents they presented.
Reports said that four of the passengers claimed they are employees of the suspect in his travel consultancy business while the other one alleged he is a public transport operator and neighbor of the latter but could not show proof of his business.
“Except for IDs purportedly showing they work at the travel agency, the four passengers were unable to provide proof of their employer-employee relationship to the suspect,” Timotea Barizo, head of the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) said.
“This caused our officers to doubt their story, hence they were interviewed to check the authenticity of their statements,” she added.
She said three of the victims are first-time travelers while the two others are former overseas workers who left and worked abroad without documentation.
“There were too many inconsistencies in their statements,” said Barizo. “In fact, two of the victims even had fake stamps in their passports,” Barizo added.
Morente reiterated his warning to aspiring OFWs. “Do not fall prey to illegal recruiters who will sweet-talk you into doing these schemes,” he warned.