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BI tightens watch over 'tourist workers'


The Bureau of Immigration is tightening its campaign against the so-called “escort" service at international airports as a means to protect Filipino workers from exploitation overseas. Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan noted that from June to December last year, 629 travelers with suspicious documents were barred from leaving the country through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport. About 400 of them were suspected “tourist workers," or those posing as tourists but were actually leaving to find work in other countries. Libanan said many of the “tourist workers" manage to get past the immigration counters because they were escorted by unscrupulous airport workers in cahoots with illegal recruiters and human traffickers. GMANews.TV has been receiving information from OFWs, even those in countries where there is a deployment ban like Iraq, Afghanistan, Nigeria and Lebanon, that some immigration officers allow them to leave in exchange for money. Libanan said he was well aware of the “escort racket" at the premiere airport that is why he has been intensifying the campaign to stop the illegal practice. Lawyer Floro Balato Jr., BI spokesman, said the suspected “tourist workers" barred from leaving the country last year were bound for Singapore, Dubai and Hong Kong. Of those barred from leaving, 46 travelers were in BI’s hold departure list while 34 were government employees whop did not have travel authority. There were also 13 who were in BI’s watchlist, 14 had no return tickets, 13 had fake US visas and 11 had tampered passports. Of the offloaded passengers, 561 were Filipinos, 16 Chinese, 12 Americans, nine Myanmar nationals, seven Japanese, five Canadians, four Indians, three Koreans and two Taiwanese. - GMANews.TV

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