BI warns vs ‘mail-order bride’ trafficking

MANILA, Philippines — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Wednesday warned of a revived form of trafficking after immigration officers intercepted a Filipino woman, a suspected “mail-order bride” who attempted to leave the country with a “fake” Chinese husband.

“In the scheme, women are made to travel with their pseudo-husbands to be trafficked abroad,” Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said in a statement.

Citing the report of its immigration protection and border enforcement section (I-PROBES), the BI said the Filipino tried to leave as a tourist for Xiamen, China, at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport with a Chinese man who claimed to be her husband.

The Chinese man, who is employed in the Philippines, showed an authenticated original certificate of marriage but the immigration officer observed several inconsistencies in their statements, prompting the referral for a secondary inspection of the couple.

According to the BI, the apostilled or authenticated marriage certificate indicated that the two got married in Kamasi, Maguindanao, in October 2022 but upon verification, the man’s travel records showed that he was not in the country on their supposed wedding day.

“The Filipina later admitted she did not personally process her marriage certificate, and had no idea how it was processed,” it said.

Document found genuine

The Chinese man said the marriage certificate was processed by an agency in China and that they paid P40,000 for the document, which was found to be genuine despite having fake details based on the inspection conducted by the BI’s forensic document laboratory.

“This is very concerning since they are able to present authentic documents despite their sham marriage,” Tansingco said. He cited previous similar cases, including one on Jan. 18 that involved another Filipino woman who was rescued at the Mactan Cebu International Airport “after being almost trafficked to Xiamen by a Chinese man who pretended to be the husband of a relative.”

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She later admitted that she was bound for China for an arranged marriage, the BI said. It added that the Chinese man had previously escorted another Filipino to China in 2019 and she had not returned since.

In November 2023, members of I-PROBES also reported the repatriation of a Filipino from Xiamen after she was abused by her fake husband, “who demanded that she pay for her food and repeatedly threatened to kill her whenever she resisted having sexual intercourse with him.”