By Helen Flores
The Philippine Star
Updated September 12, 2011 12:00 AM
MANILA, Philippines - The
Bureau of Immigration has tightened the screening of passengers bound
for Bangkok following reports that the Thai capital is being used as
transit point of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) going to countries
covered by the government deployment ban, officials said yesterday.
BI Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. ordered BI airport operations
division acting chief Lina Andaman Pelia to institute measures that will
prevent human traffickers and illegal recruiters from skirting the
deployment ban on OFWs by initially sending their victims to other
places before flying them to their final destinations where the ban is
in effect.
David issued the order after learning that many travelers offloaded
at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in recent months were
bound for Bangkok and were identified to be “tourist workers.”
Tourist workers refer to undocumented OFWs who attempt to leave the country in the guise of being tourists.
BI spokesperson Maria Antonette Bucasas-Mangrobang said they received
intelligence reports that undocumented OFWs have been using the Bangkok
International Airport as a jump-off point before going to Middle East,
especially to Jordan and Lebanon.
Mangrobang cited an incident at the NAIA last Aug. 22 when four
passengers were offloaded from their Bangkok-bound flights after it was
discovered that they were actually going to Amman, Jordan.
BI said one of the passengers turned out to be a courier for a
syndicate that recruited his three female companions, who were going to
work as domestic helpers in Amman.
Members of the BI travel control and enforcement unit, who
intercepted the passengers, said the women all pointed to their male
companion as the one who provided their plane tickets and hotel
accommodation vouchers, the BI said.
Mangrobang refused to provide the names of the passengers, citing a
provision in the anti-human trafficking act that forbids public
disclosure of trafficking victims.
Iraq, Afghanistan, Lebanon, Jordan, Syria, Yemen, and Nigeria are covered by the government deployment ban. – With Rudy Santos
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