New human trafficking ploy: Pretending to be married to foreigners


Immigration officials at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) uncovered a new ploy of human trafficking syndicates after thwarting the attempt of two women to leave for Korea, preternding they were married to Koreans.

 
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. said the women admitted that they were hired to work as factory workers in Korea when they were ntercepted on July 10 at the NAIA 3 terminal by elements from the agency’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU).

They presented fake marriage certificates indicating they were married to Korean citizens.
 
The women’s passports were stamped with valid fiancée visas by the South Korean embassy and stickers from the Commission on Filipinos Overseas (CFOs).
 
“It was evident that their visas were legally obtained and they could not have done it without the help of their recruiters who invented the scheme meant to deceive our immigration officers at the airport,” David said.
 
The BI chief declined to divulge the women’s names because the anti-human trafficking act forbids the public disclosure of human trafficking victims.
 
Both women claimed that their Korean husbands left the country a day after their marriage.

They met their husbands only once after being introduced to one another. They communicated only via the Internet.
 
One of them said their marriage was solemnized at a residential house in Parañaque although the marriage certificate said it happened at a Protestant church in Quezon City.

The other woman said they were marriage was solemnized by a judge at a restaurant in Manila but the marriage certificate indicates that it was solemnized by a pastor. - VVP, GMA News

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