BI seeks probe of airline personnel involved in trafficking
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) urged the officials of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) to investigate the possible involvement of airline personnel in facilitating the departure of victims of human trafficking and illegal recruitment.
In a statement Monday, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said he issued the appeal after BI officers at the NAIA Terminal 3 intercepted a woman who attempted to leave with a fake immigration departure stamp on her passport.
Tansingco said the woman narrated during questioning that she was assisted by an airline employee and the latter’s former officemate in queuing at the immigration departure counter.
She said she was told to fall in line after her handler handed her passport and boarding pass which had the fake BI departure stamps on them.
The incident reportedly happened last April 5 when the passenger was supposed to fly to Kuala Lumpur en route to her final destination in the United Arab Emirates where she was recruited to work as a domestic household worker.
She was stopped from leaving after the BI officer who examined her passport noticed that it had an immigration departure stamp that appeared to be spurious. The BI’s document forensic laboratory later confirmed that said stamp is counterfeit.
Tansingco declined to name the airline associated with the passenger’s escorts, saying the case was already referred to and being investigated by NAIA’s anti-trafficking task force and its airport police department.
The BI chief said the incident should warn airline personnel that they should not connive with human traffickers and illegal recruiters.
It will be recalled that last year, NAIA security guards caught several passengers who attempted to leave without immigration inspection by wearing fake NAIA passes in going to the airport’s boarding gate. BI News
