Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Norman Tansingco on Wednesday said he ordered an investigation on the reported Myanmar human trafficking scheme that had victimized overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).
The probe comes after Senator Risa Hontiveros revealed in her privilege speech last week that 12 OFWs were trafficked in Myanmar by a Chinese mafia.
She said the victims were initially recruited for the positions of call center agents and encoders in Thailand. But they were trained and forced to work as scammers to trick Western men to invest in cryptocurrency.
“At kapag wala silang na-scam o nahuthutan sa pamamagitan ng crypto, hindi sila pinapakain, hindi sila pinapasweldo, ibinebenta sila sa ibang kompanya, at higit sa lahat, pinagbabantaan ang kanilang buhay,“ Hontiveros earlier disclosed.
The Senator raised the question of how did the OFWs acquired a work visa and who in Immigration approved their immigration papers.
“We will be coordinating with the Office of Senator Hontiveros to seek further information about this case. We are also interested to find out how these victims were able to depart despite stringent immigration assessment,” Tansingco said in a statement.
Hontiveros also earlier said that a “pastillas scam” or a bribery scheme involving the BI officials and employees might be recurring again.
Tansingco said he would not let corruption happen under his watch.
“I will not tolerate involvement in issues like pastillas. I do not want to be the one to handcuff any employee involved in corruption,” he said.
The BI Chief claimed that there might be a “syndicate“ providing fake employment documents and statements to the recruited OFWs.
“These human traffickers try to circumvent immigration assessment by adjusting their modus operandi,” he said.
Tansingco said they are closely coordinating with the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) to update rules and policies on trafficking and illegal recruitment.
