Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco shared that illegal recruiters are now resorting to providing their victims ridiculous stories to present to immigration.
Tansingco shared that last November 14, a female victim attempted to board a Philippine Airlines flight to Singapore at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 1.
The BI Chief shared that their officers noted that the victim presented return credentials in someone else’s name. The victim was required by her recruiter to claim that she is working for a merchandise company in the Philippines, and even provided her with fake bank documents with clear grammatical errors.
It was later found out that she was recruited to work as an entertainer in a bar in Singapore.
Tansingco also shared that the following day, another female victim claimed to be a winner of a raffle conducted by a travel agency.
The BI’s immigration protection and border enforcement section (I-PROBES) reported that the victim attempted to leave for Singapore via an Eva Air flight to Singapore at the Clark International Airport (CIA).
The victim reportedly claimed that she had won a raffle contest sponsored by a Dubai-based travel agency.
She said that having won the raffle she was awarded with a holiday package, including a plane ticket and a three-day hotel accommodation in the said city-state.
However, when asked about basic details about the contest, she was not familiar about how she won nor about how she was declared a winner.
Reacting to the incidents, Tansingco said it was apparent that agencies are resorting to providing victims with stories to pose as regular tourists to countries other than their final work destinations.
“There have been many cases of illegal recruitment victims who were initially sent as tourists before they end up working or are flown to a third country for employment,” the BI chief said.
Tansingco said that the two victims have been turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to initiate an investigation against their recruiters.
