David orders BI officers: Secure NAIA from human trafficking, smuggling

Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) should keep illegally recruited Filipinos from leaving the country, and prevent the smuggling of illegal aliens, Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. of the Bureau of Immigration (BI) urged on Tuesday. Curb human trafficking and target criminal syndicates that use the country as a transit point for smuggling illegal aliens to other countries, the Immigration chief ordered BI airport operations head Lina Andaman Pelia. “Although we should be proud of our success in stopping thousands of undocumented OFWs from leaving, more efforts should likewise be exerted [to] prevent the entry of illegal aliens who are later smuggled abroad by the syndicates that recruited and victimized them," he said. Last August, NAIA immigration officers launched an intensified drive against human trafficking and illegally recruited Filipinos, where thousands of passengers have been offloaded from their respective flights. Many of those passengers were bound for Singapore, Malaysia, Hong Kong and the Middle East. They were supposedly prospective overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) but were unable to present the requisite overseas employment certificate from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration. The BI plans to deploy more officers to process and screen passengers. In the same vein, the BI will train its own officers to bolster their ability to profile suspected illegal aliens and detect fraudulent travel documents. — AY/VS, GMA News