The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has foiled over 130 attempts of human trafficking at the country’s major international ports since September last year, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said.
With this, Morente continues to urge Filipinos not to fall prey to illegal recruiters.
“Aspiring OFWs (overseas Filipino workers) should not fall for their tricks, and report them to the appropriate authorities,” he advised in a statement.
Morente said he disagrees with the label that human trafficking victims are“willing victims because in most cases, they agreed knowing fully that they are presenting wrong documents,”
“But there is no such thing as a willing victim. Illegal recruiters and human traffickers use sly techniques to trick their victims into agreeing into something illegal,” he explained.
Morente learned from the BI’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) that the most common modus have been the falsification of overseas employment certificate (OEC), or tampering with Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) documents.
He reminded that legitimate OFWs are required to present an OEC, records of which are linked in BI’s shared database with the POEA.
In instances when records are not found in the BI’s system, the immigration chief said passengers are referred to the POEA’s Labor Assistance Center at the airport for manual verification.
Among those intercepted by the TCEU since September last year include 70 seafarers who were not permitted to depart for presenting OECs but with only business or tourist visas.
“The use of business or tourist visas for work is not permitted. Only those holding valid and existing employment visas could be considered legitimate OFWs,” Morente said.
Source: Latest Politics News Today (Politics.com.ph)
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