BI seeks travel agencies’ help in anti-human trafficking drive

02/12/2009

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan has urged travel agencies to be extra cautious in selling airline tickets to suspected victims of human traffickers and illegal recruiters.

In a dialog last week with officers and members of the Philippine Travel Agencies Association (PTAA), Libanan sought the travel agents’ support to the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) campaign against ilegal recruitment and human trafficking.

Libanan suggested that the travel agencies conduct due diligence and make a profile of a departing passenger before selling plane tickets to the latter.

“If you suspect that the passenger is not a legitimate tourist but a potential victim of illegal recruitment, don’t sell him a plane ticket,” the BI chief told the PTAA officers led by their chairman Pat Alberto.

The BI chief said “due diligence” dictates that it is the travel agency that gives would-be victims of human trafficking the first base in flying to their designated country by issuing the necessary plane tickets.

Libanan made the appeal to the travel agencies as he noted a resurgence in attempts by human trafficking syndicates to facilitate the departure of undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs).

Last week alone, more than 50 OFWs were off-loaded by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) for not having the necessary employment permits and clearances from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration.

“Tourist” workers have been off-loaded in large numbers not only at the NAIA but at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Pampanga as well.

“It is a common knowledge that these ‘tourist’ workers buy their tickets from your travel agencies, thus you, too, can play a part in our campaign to protect our OFWs from harm’s way,” Libanan said during the dialog.

“We are urging the PTAA to help the government in its campaign against travel fraud syndicates by scrutinizing first your prospective clients,” he added.

Lawyer Floro Balato, BI spokesman, said it was agreed during the dialog that the BI will train travel agency employees in the art of detecting fraudulent travel documents, such as fake passports and visas and provide them with a list of personalities known to be engaged in human trafficking.

Balato added Libanan also advised the travel agencies not to sell plane tickets to unaccompanied minors unless they have a clearance from the Department of Social Welfare and Development.

He said that last year, the BI prevented a total of 1,200 travelers from leaving the country, most of them victims of travel fraud syndicates. Conrado Ching

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