The Bureau of Immigration (BI) barred two Filipino women from leaving for the Congo in a suspected human trafficking attempt.
According to Lei Alviz’s report on “24 Oras”, two women who were in their mid-20s to early ’30s were barred by the immigration officers at Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1 on March 7.
They said they were supposed to go on a vacation in Malaysia.
Immigration officers doubted their story due to many inconsistencies in their documents and their trips.
“They were unable to answer even the most basic details po ng kanilang bakasyon dahil itong lamang mga dokumento nila ay kabibigay lamang sa kanila right before sila pumasok ng paliparan,” BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said.
(They were unable to answer even the most basic details of their vacation because these documents were only given to them right before they entered the airport.)
“Sila palang dalawa ay bound for Congo para doon po magtrabaho. Nirecruit sila allegedly ng isang Overseas Filipino Workers (OFW) sa Congo para magtrabaho doon,” Sandoval said.
(They were both bound for Congo to work there. They were allegedly recruited by an OFW in Congo to work there.)
“They were offered P40,000 salary, the initial offer sa kanila ay mga staff, mga school o office worker pero when we inquired kung meron silang background sa mga ito, wala raw silang background sa kanilang trabaho,” she said.
(They were offered a P40,000 salary, the initial offer to them was staff, school, or office workers but when we inquired if they had a background in these, they said they had no background in their work.)
It was later revealed that the two of them were recruited as household workers.
The case was referred to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking to catch those behind the human trafficking attempt.
“We want to put the information out there for everyone to know and understand why the immigration is doing stricter interviews for certain departing Filipinos because of the high instances of human trafficking schemes such as this,” Sandoval said.
