PASAY, Philippines— Bureau of Immigration Chief Grifton Medina."Our immigration officers found numerous inconsistencies in their statements. They all eventually admitted having United Arab Emirates (UAE) visas in their possession and that their final destination is Dubai where they were recruited to work as household service workers.". Four undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) hired to work as household service workers (HSW) in Dubai were stopped at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for attempting to leave for Bangkok in the guise of being tourists, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said.

“We are in the midst of an intensified campaign against human trafficking, thus we are warning aspiring OFWs to comply with the rules and requirements for overseas workers,” said Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente in a statement. “We are likewise warning recruiters and other cohorts not to attempt to assist or vouch for illegal workers, as you will face human trafficking cases which could lead to life imprisonment,” he added. The Bureau of Immigration chief issued the statement after immigration officers intercepted four women at the NAIA Terminal 3 who pretended they were going to Thailand as vacationing tourists. Bureau of Immigration port operations division chief Grifton Medina reported that the women were about to board a flight to Bangkok last Oct. 9 when they were intercepted by members of the bureau’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU). “They pretended that they all knew each other as they were co-workers and friends,” said Medina. He added that a woman who allegedly recruited the workers and was supposed to vouch for them and accompany them in their trip was also barred from leaving. They were all turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for investigation and filing of appropriate charges, Medina said. Bureau of Immigration TCEU chief Timotea Barizo said the women initially claimed to be employed at the travel agency owned by their recruiter, who also arranged their trip to Bangkok. “During immigration inspection, the recruiter would act as the spokesperson for the entire group. She kept on answering for everyone, and has everyone’s documentation. This caused our officers to further doubt their story, hence they verified and eventually discovered the deceit,” said Barizo. “We are noticing here a pattern where trafficking victims are being made to appear as employees of their recruiters. But such scheme will not work anymore, luma na yan, we knew of this trick a long time ago,” Barizo said. The names of the passengers were not divulged to a prohibition in the anti-trafficking law.

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Seven suspected victims of human traffickings were rescued by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after they were intercepted for possessing spurious travel documents. “These fraud syndicates continue to ignore our warnings. There will be no letup in our campaign against human trafficking and their victims will not be allowed to leave if they are caught,” said Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente. Morente issued the statement after the seven passengers were stopped from leaving the country last week in three separate instances at Terminals 3 and 1 of the NAIA.

The latest interception involved five passengers who pretended to be tourists in attempting to leave for Malaysia last Oct. 5 at NAIA 3. “They admitted paying their recruiters fees ranging from P125,000 to P175,000 each in exchange for processing their jobs and travel papers to Australia, which was their final destination,” said Bureau of Immigration Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina. The passengers were reportedly accompanied by a woman who was also stopped due to a pending court cases of estafa and illegal recruitment. ‘They also presented fraudulently manufactured employee IDs which were given to them by their handlers to make it appear that they are gainfully employed here and are thus legitimate tourists,” Medina added. Earlier, the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) reported that a Malaysia-bound woman was intercepted also at NAIA 3 last Sept. 24 for having a spurious United Kingdom visa and tampered pages on her passport. “We also discovered that she was already previously barred from leaving the country on suspicion of being a tourist worker,” Bureau of Immigration-TCEU chief Timotea Barizo said. On Oct. 2, TCEU members also stopped from leaving an underage overseas Filipino worker who misrepresented her age by falsifying her date of birth. All seven passengers were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance and further investigation.

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Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente identified the alien as 71-year-old Katsumi Ohno, who was arrested last Sept. 30 along the service road in Roxas Blvd., Pasay City by members of the bureau’s fugitive search unit (FSU). Morente said the arresting agents were armed with a warrant of deportation which he signed pursuant to a deportation order that the Bureau of Immigration board of commissioners issued against the Japanese on June 20, 2019.

Ohno’s deportation was reportedly sought by the Japanese embassy last February when it informed the Bureau of Immigration about a standing arrest warrant for fraud that a Japanese court issued against him. “We also learned that his passport already expired in November last year, making him an undocumented alien,” Morente said. He added that Ohno has been included in the immigration blacklist to prevent him from returning to the Philippines. Investigation also revealed that Ohno has been hiding in the country for nine years or since April 10, 2011 when he arrived as a tourist via a flight from Hongkong. Ohno is currently detained at the Bureau of Immigration jail in Bicutan, Taguig City.

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The Bureau of Immigration (BI) announced the deployment of 67 newly-hired immigration officers to the country's international airports after graduating on Wednesday, October 2. According to Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, this is part of the agency's continuous efforts to improve its services to the travelling public. "The graduation of the officers is timed prior to the projected influx of passenger in the airport in the next few months for the upcoming South East Asian Games, and at the same time as the holiday rush begins," Morente said.

Morente said that the new recruits underwent the Border Control Officers Module (BCOM), a six-month long training designed to teach immigration laws, rules, and procedures. "The 67 graduates, which consist of 38 females and 29 males, were divided into two classes. They began training at the Philippine Immigration Academy in Clark Pampanga last April. After three months, they were assigned at the airports and the Bureau of Immigration's main office for another three months as on-the-job trainees," Morente said. Morente further shared that aside from the usual lectures, it is the first time that they have included Disaster and Emergency Preparedness Response seminar in the program. "This kind of training adheres with the changing times. We want our officers to be fully prepared in the field even during emergency situations," he said. The Bureau's Port Operations Division (POD) Chief Grifton Medina likewise disclosed that as part of their continuous effort to address the problem of congestion in our airports, all graduates have signed a lock-in contract with the POD stating that they will be deployed in our ports for a minimum of two years. "We want the concept of genuine public service to be inculcated in our front-liners. We need them to be committed mentally and physically to the job," Medina added.

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