Phl investigates human trafficking to Syria

MANILA, Philippines - The Philippines said yesterday that at least 14 immigration officers were under investigation for alleged involvement in the human trafficking of Filipinos to strife-torn Syria.

Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David said his office was cooperating with a probe being carried out by the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), which could lead to criminal charges or the firing of officers.

“We assure the public that this bureau under my watch will not tolerate these shenanigans,” David said.

Vice President Jejomar Binay, who chairs the IACAT, said the immigration personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) were issued show-cause orders for not enforcing the deployment ban to Syria.

A total of 19 immigration officers, who were found to have helped illegal recruitment agencies, were dismissed from their jobs last year, according to David.

David said the bureau will not intervene or influence the IACAT probe, saying the BI itself is actively waging a campaign to purge its ranks of corrupt personnel.

He said the BI provided IACAT with the names of BI personnel whose departure stamps were found on the passports of OFWs who were repatriated from Syria. The bureau’s anti-fraud division certified that the stamps were genuine, David added.

The Department of Labor and Employment has said gullible Filipinos from poor provinces have been duped into traveling to Syria, many of them women who end up employed as maids under very poor working conditions.

It said an average of 100 Filipinos were entering Syria every month.

The Philippine government banned Filipinos from working in Syria and ordered a mandatory evacuation of its nationals there in December, some 10 months after an uprising against the rule of President Bashar al-Assad broke out.

Out of almost 7,000 Filipinos known to be in Syria, some 1,500 have already been successfully repatriated, according to DOLE.