6 Cambodia-bound Filipinos stopped at Davao airport

 

Excerpt from the written statement by one of the six trafficking victims

Recruiters for the notoriously brutal scam hubs in Cambodia have turned their sights on recruiting Filipinos in Davao City.

This emerged as the Bureau of Immigration disclosed yesterday, June 28, that six more Filipinas who were bound for Cambodia were intercepted at Davao International Airport last June 20, as they were about to board a Philippine Airlines flight to Singapore.

Investigations conducted by Immigration authorities revealed that the six who pretended that they were going to Singapore as tourists, were actually recruited for illegal overseas employment.

PAANO SUMALI? BASAHIN DITO

They divulged during questioning that they were recruited by a fellow Filipino through the social messaging app Telegram who offered them a high salary on the pretext that they would work as customer service representatives.

In truth, the Filipinas appeared to have been recruited to work under extremely harsh conditions in the scam hubs in Cambodia, where they would be forced to raise thousands of dollars for the syndicate by defrauding people online.

Basahin ang detalye!

One of the victims said the recruiter provided all of them with fraudulent documents and a return ticket so as to deflect suspicion at the immigration checkpoint. They were each promised a monthly salary of P50,000.

But before they could leave they were asked to pay Php50,000 each to the recruiter.

Illegal recruitment victims seeking help from the govt: Viado laments they ignore red flags

Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the continuous recruitment of Filipinos for the scam hubs indicate that there is one trafficking syndicate behind the illegal activities.

He lamented that far too many Filipinos still fall for the spurious job offers, despite the “well-rehearsed lie” by the illegal recruiters.

He again called on Filipinos to be wary of overseas job offers that are too good to be true, particularly those that do not comply with legal recruitment processes.

A report issued on June 26 by the human rights group Amnesty International identified at least 53 scam centers across Cambodia, and accused the country’s government of “deliberately ignoring” the illegal acts of the criminal gangs.

Amnesty said that the cybercrime gangs continue to traffic people across the world, including children, and keeping them in slave-like condition while they amass money from unsuspecting scam targets.