Philippines assures curb to human trafficking, arrests 6 foreign suspects

September 22, 2004

Manila - The Philippine government Wednesday assured a Japanese official team, which was conducting an investigation into the human trafficking in the country, that the Philippines is doing its best to curb the crime.

The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) assured that the Philippine government is addressing the problem of human trafficking on all possible fronts.

The nine-member team has been in Manila for two weeks to interview Philippine officials on the systems and procedures used in the deployment of Filipino workers since their government identified the Philippines as one of the sources of trafficked women in Japan.

Felicitas Bay, head of POEA'S licensing division, said that, with the help of the Philippine National Police, they were going after illegal recruiters, who are usually the source of illegal aliens in other countries.

She also said that women who leave the Philippines without the appropriate travel documents usually leave through illegal recruiters.

On the other hand, Bay said, licensed recruiters who send workers abroad illegally are blacklisted and their licenses revoked.

"We also have legal assistance programs for those victimized byillegal recruiters. And for those who leave legally, we have the Pre-Employment Orientation Seminar," she said.

Philippine Bureau of Immigration Wednesday said that they had arrested six foreigners, including a Singaporean, two Indonesians,two Chinese and an Indian, who attempted to smuggle themselves to North America.

The Singaporean, identified as Tay Choon Hee, was captured as the courier of the human-smuggling operation while the five otherswere held for holding forged travel papers, the immigration bureausaid in a statement.

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