BI renews warning vs recruitment scams

INQUIRER file photo / ALEXIS CORPUZ

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has renewed its warning against unscrupulous individuals luring aspiring overseas workers to Asian countries with bogus call center jobs.

The BI issued the warning following the repatriation over the weekend of 27 Filipinos from Phnom Penh, Cambodia, where they were allegedly sold like slaves and made to work as love scammers.

According to the BI, 12 out of the 27 passengers departed illegally via boat from Zamboanga to evade formal immigration inspection. They allegedly traveled for 11 hours from Zamboanga to Sabah, Malaysia, before finally arriving in Cambodia.

The other 14 all departed as regular tourists, claiming that they were traveling abroad for a holiday.

One of the repatriates was even a government employee, while others were either short-term travel, traveling with friends, partner or employer, or are gainfully employed, the BI said.

It added that only one departed as a documented overseas Filipino worker, but was supposedly bound for Palau and not Cambodia.

Still duped

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the new batch of repatriates mostly left at the end of 2022 or the first half of 2023, which meant that the syndicate has not stopped getting new recruits despite the numerous warnings sent out by the Philippine government.

“We have warned about this syndicate as early as October last year. It has been more than a year and we are still seeing victims being duped in accepting their fake offers,” said Tansingco in a statement.

He said the 27 victims recounted escaping their ordeal abroad, where they were forced to work as love scammers, targeting old men residing in the United Kingdom.

“Some of them experienced abuse and torture in the workplace, and were later sold by their Chinese employers to another company,” Tansingco said. INQ