NINE Filipino victims of human trafficking have been repatriated from Thailand and Myanmar, the Bureau of Immigration said yesterday.
Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the repatriates were victims of the modus operandi of human traffickers — using social media accounts to contact and offer them work as call center agents abroad.
The victims, in their 20s to early 30s, are young urban professionals that Tansingco earlier said are increasingly being targeted by human traffickers and crypto-currency scammers.
The first batch of repatriates, composed of four males and two females, arrived last May 29 from Bangkok, Thailand followed by two more males and one female last May 30 from Myanmar.
“The new face of victims now are really professionals with good jobs here in the country but seek adventure abroad. Some of them are even traveling with their partners or claim they will be visiting family, and have previous travels,” Tansingco said, adding two of the Filipinos rescued in Myanmar left Manila as registered overseas Filipino workers while one left as a tourist.
“These latest batch of victims show that traffickers are using the same modus to recruit young professionals to seemingly good call center jobs abroad only to find out that it is a scam,’ he added.
All of the victims left the country late last year and early this year.
Earlier, Tansingco also bared that human traffickers are using the cover of religious travel or pilgrimage to spirit their victims out of the country or to make them use fake government identification cards, leave forms and travel authority to hoodwink immigration inspectors to allow them to board their flight.
Since January this year, the Department of Foreign Affairs said it was able to rescue and repatriate 210 Filipino victims of traffickers who were made to work as cryptocurrency scammers in Cambodia, Myanmar and Laos.
Of the 210, 90 were rescued in Myanmar, 52 in Cambodia and 68 in Laos.
Last year, the DFA said around 150 to 160 Filipinos were also rescued in the region.
