MANILA, Philippines—Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado hailed the arrest of 2 individuals involved in the recruitment of Filipinos to work in scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar.
Viado said he received reports that two individuals were arrested by the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) for allegedly trafficking Filipino victims to work in scam hubs abroad, where they faced physical abuse and torture.
Last March 25-26, a total of 206 trafficking victims were repatriated from Myanmar through the joint efforts of member agencies of the inter-agency council against trafficking (IACAT).
Alias ‘Fiona’ was arrested in Zamboanga yesterday by the PNP after being tagged by victims as an alleged facilitator of illegal exit through the backdoor. Victims claimed that they were convinced by ‘Fiona’ to depart illegally via the backdoor after they have been offered work as customer service representatives abroad.
Meanwhile, NBI operatives arrested alias ‘Jon Jon’ who was among the individuals repatriated on March 26. He claimed to have been victimized by the syndicate abroad, but was later tagged by his colleagues as one of the recruiters who offered work in Thailand but ended up transporting them to Myanmar where they were abused and forced to work as scammers.
Viado lauded the arrests and said that this is a significant step in curbing human trafficking in the country.
He stressed that the whole-of-government approach on the issue must be continued to prevent more victims from being abused.
He further reiterated his warning on the scheme, sharing that 136 of the repatriated victims departed pretending to be regular tourists, with 5 leaving as a family and 14 departing as spouses, only to end up working illegally abroad.
He shared that 15 left as overseas Filipino workers but was recruited to transfer to a third country, while 55 were found to have no travel record and are suspected to have left the country illegally.
“This is a problem of migrant workers being lured by false promises, with all of them leaving under false pretenses or via illegal means,” said Viado. “As a member-agency of the IACAT, we vow to continue doing our share to protect our kababayan from being victimized,” he added.
