TWO female call center agents recruited to work in a fake company in Laos were “rescued” by immigration officers, the Bureau of Immigration said yesterday.
Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 stopped the two from boarding their flight out of the country. However, he did not say when this incident happened.
Citing the report provided to his office by the Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section (I-PROBES), Viado said the two women, aged 25 and 31, attempted to pass themselves off as co-workers on leave and bound for Bangkok, Thailand.
“They stated that they were both working as call center agents for a BPO in Quezon City and are traveling for tourism,” Viado said.
Upon presenting their documents, immigration officers noted inconsistencies that contradicted their initial statements.
Viado said after further questioning, the two admitted they were not officemates but were recruited to work in Laos, where they would take up customer service representative positions and promised a P50,000 salary per month.
“They admitted to having paid P30,000 to a fixer they met on social media to produce documents to make it seem like they were officemates,” the BI chief said, quoting the I-PROBES report.
Viado said the two could have been the latest victims of syndicates recruiting Filipinos to work in scam hubs in Asian countries by luring them with promises of big monthly salaries and other benefits.
“These syndicates lure victims with promises of high-paying call center jobs, only for them to be forced into fraudulent activities, such as online scams and cryptocurrency fraud, under harsh and abusive working conditions,” he said.
“We strongly advise Filipinos to be cautious when accepting job offers abroad, especially those that seem too good to be true. Many of these so-called call center jobs turn out to be fronts for large-scale scam operations that exploit and endanger our fellow countrymen,” he added.
Last year, more than 120 Filipinos were rescued after a crackdown by Laotian authorities on illegal companies located within the so-called Golden Triangle Special Economic Zone in Bokeo Province, Lao People’s Republic.
Viado said the two were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for further investigation. – With Osias Osorio
