Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) stopped from leaving four female overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who were recruited to work as household service workers in Dubai, but pretended that they were going to work in Europe.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) said that the passengers attempted to board an Emirates flight to Dubai at the NAIA Terminal 3 last July 12, when they were intercepted.

The women initially showed valid work permits and visas to Albania, but later admitted that they were actually hired to work as household service workers in Dubai. They likewise admitted that they were not going to proceed to the said European country.

“This is a new modus operandi employed by human traffickers and illegal recruiters. They will obtain work permits and job contracts for their victims to work in another country, such as Albania or Maldives, when in fact Dubai is their actual work destination,” the report stated.

“This is a type of third country recruitment, wherein victims are given documents for one country, but end up being deployed in another,” said Morente. “In many instances, victims are made to accept conditions that are otherwise not acceptable just to be deployed for work,” he added.

The TCEU reported that all four passengers presented documents showing they were hired to work either as housekeepers or warehouse staffers in Albania.

However, when pressed on their actual travel itinerary, they eventually confessed that they had been recruited to work as household service workers in Dubai and that they would be handed their job contracts and work visas upon arriving at the emirate.

Their employers reportedly paid as much as P200,000 for the processing of their visas.

Morente warned other aspiring OFWs not to fall prey to the schemes of traffickers who want to shortcut their way to earning profit at the expense of their victims.

“Don’t be misled by these unscrupulous individuals and agree to illegal means just to be deployed,” the BI chief warned.

The four were endorsed to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for further investigation and filing of charges against their recruiters. DMS