Immigration chief vows no letup in campaign vs human trafficking

The Bureau of Immigration has vowed to intensify its campaign against human trafficking after its records revealed that a total of 20,316 travelers were barred by the bureau from leaving the country from January to June this year, suspected of being victims of human trafficking.

Of the more than 20,000 travelers barred from leaving the country, more than three-fourths were denied departure at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport while the rest were offloaded at the airports in Mactan, Clark, Iloilo, Kalibo, and Davao. About 1,500 of them were intercepted at the Zamboanga seaport.

The Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) of the Bureau of Immigration also referred the cases of 317 offloaded passengers to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for further investigation and possible filing of court cases.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said offloaded travelers are required by immigration officers to present proof to verify that they will go abroad as tourists and not to work without proper documents. He said that the Immigration defers the departure of suspected illegal recruitment and human trafficking victims.

“The campaign has been in high gear, and there will be no letup in our effort to secure our citizens from being victims of human trafficking or illegal recruitment. We are determined to impose the stiffest disciplinary action of any of our personnel caught conniving with these trafficking syndicates,” Morente said in a statement Tuesday.

The immigration chief issued the statement after President Rodrigo Duterte said in his State of the Nation Address that stopping human trafficking was one of his administration’s priority programs.

The US State Department has recently reported the Philippines as the only Southeast Asian country under Tier 1 of its annual trafficking in persons (TIP) watch list. Countries under Tier 1 “fully meet” the minimum standards “for the elimination of human trafficking” under the US Trafficking Victims Protection Act (TVPA) of 2000.

Last Monday, Morente ordered some immigration officers to show cause why they should not be administratively charged for allowing five Filipino women to leave the country to South Korea despite questionable documents. With Ma. Czarina A. Fernandez/INQUIRER.net trainee/JE

READ: BI chief orders probe of officers’ involvement in trafficking