Nearly 500 victims of trafficking, illegal recruitment rescued from Jan. to Sept. 2021

Bureau of Immigration in Intramuros, Manila. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO/ ALEXIS CORPUZ

MANILA, Philippines — Almost 500 victims of trafficking and illegal recruitment attempting to fly abroad were intercepted in different airports in the country during the first three quarters of the year, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported Tuesday.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said 495 victims were rescued from January to September this year at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA), as well as at the airports in Clark, Pampanga, and Cebu.

Data from the BI show that 325 were found to be potential victims of trafficking and were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for investigation and filing of charges against their handlers and recruiters.

Meanwhile, 170 were endorsed to the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) for illegal recruitment.

“Despite the challenges brought about by the pandemic, there has been no letup in our drive against human trafficking,” Morente said in a statement.

“We have a mandate to perform in seeing to it that our kababayan are not victimized by these syndicates who take advantage of them. We will not stop until these traffickers and illegal recruiters are put behind bars,” he added.

Overall, Morente said a total of 8,413 passengers were deferred departure during the same period, mostly for being improperly documented. Of this number, 90 percent or 6,909 of the passengers were intercepted at the NAIA.

EDV