DAVAO CITY — Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 caught an airport employee escorting three passengers attempting to depart for Dubai, UAE, transiting through Thailand last December 22.
The Immigration press statement stated that the passengers, initially posed as friends from General Santos City on vacation, but turned out to be strangers to one another and are victims of human trafficking.
In the statement, BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, said that the agency discovered that the individuals did not know each other’s names and lacked return tickets to General Santos.
During the investigation, the victims confessed to have been recruited as household service workers in Dubai through Facebook, with no knowledge of their transit arrangements to the UAE.
Tansingco further disclosed that an airport employee was seen escorting the victims to the immigration counters.
“Immigration supervisors promptly intervened, signaling that such actions were unauthorized and against protocol,” Tansingco said.
Tansingco, responding to this incident, emphasized that airport immigration areas are strictly off-limits to unauthorized personnel, especially those providing VIP treatment to trafficking victims.
The incident was promptly relayed to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for further investigation and filing of appropriate charges against the recruiters.
