6 South Korea-bound human trafficking victims stopped from leaving PH
SIX suspected South Korea-bound human trafficking victims were stopped from leaving the country over “fake” travel papers, the Bureau of Immigration said on Thursday.
In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente and BI Port Operations Division (POD) chief Grifton Medina said the passengers, who were all women, were intercepted before they could board a JinAir flight bound for Incheon on November 8 at the Clark International Airport in Angeles City, Pampanga.
The BI did not name the alleged victims in adherence to anti-trafficking laws but Medina said they were later turned over to the Department of Justice’s Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for investigation and assistance.
Initial investigation by the POD showed that the women were recruited to work as nightclub entertainers in South Korea and that they were holders of entertainer’s visas issued by the Korean embassy, the BI said in a statement.
But upon checking, the Overseas Employment Certificates (OECs) they presented turned out to be suspicious, and details indicated in the documents did not match their records in the BI database, Medina added.
The POD chief also said that the women identified a certain “Mercy” from Cavite as having processed their travel documents.
The passengers supposedly obtained their OEC printouts online by entering the information provided by the alleged fixer. CATHERINE MODESTO
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