For possessing fake travel documents, seven passengers were intercepted in three separate instances at Terminals 3 and 1 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).
According to a release from the Bureau of Immigration (BI), the latest intercept involved five passengers who pretended to be tourists in attempting to leave for Malaysia last Oct. 5 at NAIA 3.
BI port operations division chief Grifton Medina said the suspected victims of human trafficking admitted to paying their recruiters fees ranging from P125,000 to P175,000 each. This is in exchange for processing of their jobs and travel papers to Australia, which was their final destination.
They were accompanied by a woman who was also stopped due to pending court cases of estafa and illegal recruitment.
Medina added that they possessed fake employee IDs that were given to them by their handlers to make it appear that they are gainfully employed here and are thus legitimate tourists.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said there will be no let-up in their campaign against human trafficking and their victims will not be allowed to leave if they are caught.
All were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance and further investigation. (Elle Sy)
