A man from Zamboanga turned out to be the culprit in recruiting “undocumented household workers” to work in Syria as part of a human trafficking racket.
The man identified as Paksatul Anding y Idres a.k.a. “Hajja Paksa” was nabbed by police on June 6, 2021, after the victims provided related affidavits to the Philippine Embassy in Damascus.
The police said that Hajja Paksa was positively identified by the illegal recruitment victims, who had been placed under the custody of the Filipino Workers Resource Center (FWRC) shelter at the Embassy in Damascus, before being repatriated to the Philippines.
While cases have been filed against Hajja Paksa before the Provincial Prosecutors in Sulu and Zamboanga besides other tribunals in the region, he is also facing multiple cases for violation of the Anti-Trafficking in Persons Act and the Migrant Workers Act or large-scale illegal recruitment, all non-bailable offenses.
The Embassy noted that Paksa has been sending —since 2009 – such victims to Malaysia, Syria and other countries that have a deployment ban.
A raid of Paksa’s residence in 2015 led to the discovery of around 200 passports, besides firearms and ammunition.
Philippine Chargé d’affaires to Syria Vida Soraya Verzosa highlighted Paksa’s arrest coming off collaborative efforts of the Department of Foreign Affairs and other IACAT member agencies, especially the law enforcement authorities.
