BUREAU of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco has sought an investigation into the possible involvement of airline personnel in human trafficking activities.
Tansingco made the call after immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) Terminal 3 intercepted a woman who attempted to leave with a fake immigration departure stamp on her passport.
The BI chief said the incident happened last Wednesday, April 5, while 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.
However, the victim was prevented from leaving the country after the BI officer who examined her passport noticed that it already had an immigration departure stamp that appeared to be spurious.
The BI’s document forensic laboratory later confirmed that said stamp is a counterfeit.
During interrogation, the woman disclosed 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 BI chief did not disclose the name of the airline where the woman’s escort was since the case has already been referred to and now being investigated by Naia’s anti-trafficking task force and its airport police department.
Tansingco said the incident should serve as a warning to airline personnel that they should not connive with human traffickers and illegal recruiters.
“They should stop preying on our poor countrymen who want to work abroad due to poverty and their desire to uplift the lives of their families. We thus urge airport authorities to dig deeper into these shenanigans and file the cases against those involved,” he said.
It will be recalled that last year, Tansingco made a similar call to the Manila International Airport Authority (MIAA) after airport security guards caught several passengers while attempting to leave without immigration inspection by wearing fake Naia passes in going to the airport’s boarding gate.
Tansingco said the passengers were using fake airport access passes by pretending to be employees of various airport concessionaires to be able to enter the boarding gates.
Meanwhile, the BI said it recorded more than 45,000 arrivals and 33,000 departures on Easter Sunday.
Tansingco said that the increase of arriving passengers is expected until the tail end of the holidays.
“The high number of arriving and departing passengers show that the travel sector is already recovering. We see this as a good sign, and we believe the numbers will continue to rise until the end of the year,” he added.