ZAMBOANGA CITY, Philippines – At least 11 Malaysia-bound Filipino women, including a minor, were rescued by the anti-human trafficking task force in this port city, according to an official yesterday.
Superintendent Celso Bael, director of the Philippine Center on Transnational Crime (PCTC) Western Mindanao Field Office, said the victims were about to board a commercial ferry bound for Malaysia when they were intercepted last week.
“The immigration personnel discovered that the 11 women were carrying fabricated passports and was later learned they were victims of illegal recruitment while others appeared to be voluntarily tapped by the recruiters to illegally slip them into the other country,” Bael said.
Investigation showed that most of the victims came from Central Mindanao and were promised by their recruiters to help them enter Malaysia as jump-off point on their way either to Lebanon or Syria.
Bael said the other victims have refused to cooperate and appeared to have voluntarily sought the help of the illegal recruiters.
The victims have been placed in the halfway center to undergo debriefing before they will be sent back to their places of origin.
Bael said this southern port city has become the “gateway or backdoor” of illegal migrants.
He said the southern backdoor remains as flash point for human trafficking.
“They’re (illegal migrants) using this point as their gateway because the expenses are cheaper and anti-human traffickers are very active in the Manila airport. Little did they know that we have very active sea-based anti-human trafficking operations here,” he said.
He said based on their assessment since the anti-human trafficking operation was intensified, there is an ascending trend of passengers plying Zamboanga City to Malaysia while the number of minors have dropped.
Bael said the most common of passengers to travel using Malaysia is to visit relatives, friends and to seek jobs.
He said about 70 percent of those using the southern backdoor were first time travelers and Region 9 (Western Mindanao) remained as the top source of passengers followed by the Autonomous Region in Muslim Mindanao and two percent from the National Capital Region (NCR).
According to Bael, 90 percent of the passengers use the backdoor going to Malaysia, Brunei, Singapore, Middle East, and Africa.