Filipinos barred from traveling abroad reach 5,000
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said it barred a record high of nearly 5,000 Filipino travelers from leaving the country in the first six months this year as part of its intensified campaign against human trafficking.
In a report to BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, BI immigration regulations chief Gary Mendoza said the number of offloaded passengers from January to June rose by more than three-fold to 4,930 from the 1,511 a year ago.
Most of the offloaded passengers were suspected victims of human trafficking and illegal recruitment syndicates while others had improper or incomplete travel documents.
Mendoza also said that 1,236, or more than a third of the passengers, were Filipinos suspected of being “tourist” workers, referring to undocumented Filipino workers overseas disguised as tourists.
Elated by the report, Libanan ordered immigration officers in the different airports and seaports to double their vigilance even as he vowed that there would be no letup in the BI’s drive against human trafficking and illegal recruitment.
“The war against these syndicates will not end so long as the Philippines is being used as a transit point for human trafficking victims and poor Filipinos are victimized by unscrupulous illegal recruiters,” Libanan said.
Libanan, who is vice-chair of the Task Force Against Illegal Recruitment headed by Vice-President Noli de Castro, also commended BI personnel assigned in the various ports for their vigilance which enabled them to foil many human trafficking operations.
Statistics showed that 2,976 of the passengers were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport while 2,186 were offloaded at the Clark airport in Angeles City.
Also offloaded were 242 passengers at the Mactan-Cebu airport, 118 in Zamboanga and two in Subic.
Aside from undocumented OFWs, the foreigners who were barred from leaving were transit passengers suspected of being victims of human trafficking syndicates using the Philippines as a transit point for smuggling illegal aliens to other countries.
The foreigners were either found to have spurious passports or questionable visas.
