(Photo courtesy of BI)
MANILA – The Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) has intercepted a human trafficking victim for presenting a fake border stamp on her passport.
In a statement on Friday, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the female victim was supposed to fly to the United Arab Emirates via a Cebu Pacific flight to Dubai when she was stopped at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 3 on April 30.
Upon secondary inspection, she admitted that she was invited by her cousin who allegedly processed all her documents.
Before entering the airport, the victim said she gave her passport and boarding pass to an unknown woman riding a taxi outside the airport.
After several minutes, the woman returned and handed her an already stamped passport before going to the immigration departure area.
The BI’s forensic documents laboratory confirmed that the border stamp is counterfeit.
The TCEU officers sought the assistance of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking assigned at NAIA for standard turnover procedures.
Tansingco again warned that they are ready to stop human traffickers who would attempt to employ these schemes.
“Our officers have wide-ranging measures to detect and deter fraud. We will continue to safeguard the public against trafficking and aid in bringing these perpetrators to justice,” he added. (PNA)
