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OFW bound for UAE barred by immigration after presenting fake documents

Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) barred an overseas Filipino worker (OFW) from leaving the country for presenting fake documents on Tuesday.

Benlando Guevarra, head of the NAIA 2 TCEU, said that the OFW posed as a seafarer bound for the UAE by presenting a fake seafarer’s book and a fake overseas employment certificate (OEC).

No further details about the mentioned OFW were disclosed.

According to a previous report by the Bureau of Immigration, over 7,000 outbound Filipino travelers were barred from leaving the country in the first quarter of 2019 due to the government’s intensified campaign against human trafficking.

In a statement, BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said a total of 7,311 passengers were deferred for failure to comply with requirements for travelers bound overseas, from January to March.

Earlier, The Filipino Times reported thirty undocumented Dubai-bound Filipinos who were not allowed by immigration officials at NAIA to leave the country on March 29.

The workers, 18 women and 12 men, claimed that they would only visit relatives in Dubai but inconsistencies in their reasons for leaving the country made BI officers suspicious.

BI-TCEU Chief Erwin Ortañez said 29 of the Filipinos would be working as waiters and waitresses in various Dubai hotels, while one was bound for Baghdad to work as a kitchen supervisor.

Only one passenger had valid tourist visas issued by the UAE Ministry of Interior.

BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said the passengers later admitted they were going to work abroad and that their travel documents were given to them by a handler who met them outside the airport.

Staff Report

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