Philippine Immigration

This was the suggestion of Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino C. Libanan as he called on local government officials to get actively involved in putting to stop this abuse of Filipino women and minors.

Speaking at the Balitaan forum at the Hotel Rambrandt in Quezon City yesterday, Libanan said the modus operandi of human traffickers starts at the barangay where illegal recruiters freely dupe hapless women and children with promises of high paying jobs abroad.
“Human trafficking is a product of illegal recruitment. As a crime, human trafficking is consummated at the point of destination when the victims end up abused or worse, forced to prostitution,” he explained.

According to Libanan syndicates in human trafficking use the right of Filipinos to travel to facilitate their exit from the country. “The right to travel by a Filipino is enshrined in the constitution,” he added.

The BI chief said the character of the crime requires a multi-agency approach in its containment, starting at the point of recruitment.. He said a multi-agency task force led by the Department of Justice is now in place even as the BI has set up systems and technologies that have discouraged human trafficking using the airports.

“But the BI point in the containment of this crime is more at the airports when BI is tipped off or able to profile tourist-workers who are found to be carrying spurious travel papers,” Libanan explained, adding the vigilance at the barangay level should effectively stop the crime.

“The PNP with LGUs should be the first line of the defense. Then the department of Foreign Affairs on the issuance of passports should be second line of defense. The third line of defense is the BI at the ports of exit. Then the last line of defense is the consular office at the place of destination,” Libanan said in describing the check points in the system to prevent abuse of Filipino women and minors abroad.

He said the Philippines is a prime target of human traffickers as source and transit point of their victims because the Philippines is a known labor-sending country.

He said many Filipinos lured by these syndicates end up in prostitution or slavery, and are prone to all sorts of abuse abroad because they don’t have the proper work documents.

Libanan said the BI has a 24/7 hotline to receive reports of violations of immigrations laws aside from providing assistance to the public doing business with the BI. The BI will receive reports even of suspicious illegal recruitment activities especially by foreigners in the country.. BI hotline is 1-800-100-ALIENS or 5236615 and 5243769. BI News