3 Filipino trafficking victims repatriated from Myanmar

MANILA, Philippines — Three Filipino trafficking victims were repatriated from Myanmar after paying their company an amount of P90,000 each, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Saturday.

According to the bureau, the victims, who are in their 20s to early 30s, arrived in the country on Friday.

The bureau said that they were recruited to work as call center agents in Thailand, but were transported to Myanmar to work as love scammers targeting Americans and Europeans to invest in pseudo cryptocurrency accounts.

Lovescam is a scheme that uses trust and romance to get a victim’s money.

“They were required to reach a weekly quota, otherwise they would be subjected to physical punishments like push-ups and jump squats,” the BI said in a press release.

The bureau added that the victims also reported that they worked for 16 to 18 hours a day, with no days off.  They were allowed by their employer to use their mobile phones but were heavily monitored when doing so.

The victims were only allowed to go home after they paid their company, the BI noted.

Meanwhile, according to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco, the latest batch of repatriates only shows that the syndicate is still operating.

He further shared that even other Asian countries have already reported the same concern.

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