Nine Filipino who have fallen victim to human trafficking schemes in Thailand and Malaysia have safely arrived in the country, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported on Thursday.
In a statement, BI said victims in Malaysia arrived last May 9 and Thailand on May 11.
According to Tangsingco, six of the victims from Thailand were initially hired for customer service jobs with salaries ranging from ₱40,000 to ₱60,000.
"Like other cases of human trafficking in the Southeast Asian region, the victims were transported to Mae Sot City, Myanmar to be forced to work in online love scams and crypto rings,” BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said.
All of the victims were tortured physically if they could not meet the designated quota, and they were detained until ransom got paid.
Meanwhile, the remaining three victims were recruited by certain "Cherry”, "Juvy", and "Lorena" as massage therapists in Miri, Malaysia but later got forced to be sex workers in spa parlors.
“The victims recounted how they were forced to work every day, and were only given rest days during their monthly period,” Tansingco said.
The BI chief said the victims arrived in Malaysia by boat through Zamboanga and Tawi-Tawi.
He gave a stern warning to the public “not to fall prey to human trafficking schemes”.
"Securing documents to work abroad might be tedious, but it also protects aspiring overseas Filipino workers against illegal recruitment and other hazards abroad," Tansingco noted.
"Remember that the security measures imposed by the government are in place as we prefer prevention over repatriation," he added.
