Underaged OFW bound for OFW intercepted at CIA
AN underaged overseas Filipino worker (OFW) bound for the Middle East was intercepted by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) at the Clark International Airport (CIA) on Monday.
The BI said that traffickers of underaged OFWs are still in business despite the ongoing investigations as pushed by the Senate Committee on Women, Children, Family Relations and Gender Equality.
The female victim initially claimed that she was 27 years old and was traveling to work as a domestic helper in Saudi Arabia.
However, primary inspection showed inconsistencies in her statement and referred her for secondary inspection to the BI’s Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU).
TCEU Officers Tomas David and Pedro Reynaldo III reported that the victim presented her valid passport with an employment visa, a postal ID, a Tax Identification Number ID, visitor’s card, National Bureau of Investigation Clearance, Certificate of Muslim Filipino Tribal Affiliation, Technical Education and Skills Development Authority Certificate, her Overseas Employment Certificate, a Pre-Departure Education Program for Domestic Workers Certificate, birth certificate from the Local Civil Registry and a Philippine Statistics Authority-issued birth certificate. Majority of the said documents were issued in the Southern part of the country.
Upon interview, the victim was said to have made highly-inconsistent statements about her age. She claimed to be 27, but stated that her elder brother is 23.
When further asked, it was confirmed that she is only 21 years old and a certain “Munalisa” instructed her not to reveal her true age. The minimum age to work as domestic workers in the Middle East is 23.
The BI also shared that the victim’s birth certificates also had discrepancies, as these showed that she was already 30 years old.
It can be recalled that during the Senate hearings on the trafficking of minors, underaged OFWs were illegally transported to Syria and other war-torn countries, and many times ended up exploited, abused, and unpaid.
