10 trafficking victims barred from leaving PH

Ten suspected human-trafficking victims bound for Russia were barred from leaving the country earlier this week, Immigration officer-in-charge Siegfred Mison said Saturday.

According to Mison, immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) prevented the victims from leaving on Sept. 9 as they were about to board a Qatar Airlines flight to Moscow.

“We remain vigilant in our campaign against human trafficking and there will be no letup in our efforts to frustrate the schemes of these syndicates that prey on our poor countrymen,” the Bureau of Immigration (BI) official said.

He added that the incident should serve as a warning to would-be overseas contract workers attempting to leave without the required employment permits from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA).

Lawyer Floro Balato, head of the BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU), said the passengers had claimed they were going to Russia to study the Russian language but admitted that they would seek employment there after finishing their course.

They were intercepted after five of them were initially invited for questioning when they were spotted queuing at the immigration counter, Balato said.

Two of them admitted that they were previously off-loaded last March when they tried to leave for Doha, Qatar, he added.

Balato said the passengers then revealed that five of their companions were already at the airport’s boarding gate. Alert TCEU members responded and prevented the five others, who were already at Gate No. 15, from boarding their flight.

All 10 passengers were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for investigation, he said.

Their names were not divulged as the antitrafficking law prohibits the disclosure of the identities of human traffickers and their victims, he added.