MORE than 45,000 passengers were barred by the Bureau of Immigration from leaving the country last year who were suspected to be “tourist workers” and victims of human trafficking syndicate, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said.
BI records revealed that of the 111,947 passengers who were referred for secondary inspection, around 66,631 were allowed to leave the Ninoy Aquino International Airport while 45,316 passengers were offloaded.
Morente said that at least 667 were suspected to be human trafficking victims while 601 others were victims of illegal recruiters who were immediately turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for investigation.
During Morente’s watch from July 1 to the first week of October alone, a total of 15,408 passengers were offloaded at the NAIA terminals and the five other international airports and seaports nationwide, particularly Mactan, Clark, Iloilo, Kalibo, Davao, and Zamboanga.
Morente vowed that there will be no letup in its drive against human trafficking this year, and advised Filipino travelers to comply with the government’s requirements for departing Filipino tourists under the “Inter-Agency Council against Trafficking Revised Guidelines on Departure Formalities for International bound Passengers” (DOJ Memorandum Circular No. 36).
Morente said immigration officers at the NAIA and other ports will remain vigilant in screening departing Filipino travelers to make sure that they do not fall prey to human traffickers and illegal recruiters.
Morente added that several BI personnel suspected of conniving with these syndicates are already being investigated by the board of discipline.
“We cannot allow these syndicates to continue preying on our poor countrymen who are forced to go abroad because of their poverty,” the BI chief stressed.
A report from the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit, the team of immigration officers that conducts secondary interview of departing travelers, showed that most of the passengers were found to have doubtful purposes in leaving the country.
Most of them reportedly carried fraudulent supporting travel documents while others misrepresented themselves and some had unverified employment visas.
The bulk of the passengers were bound for the Middle East while a few were destined for other countries in Asia and North America.