2 OFWs in alleged BI trafficking scheme set to be repatriated within 2 weeks —official

Two of the overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) who testified about their experiences in being trafficked to Syria are expected to return to the Philippines in two weeks' time, an officer at the Philippine Embassy in Damascus said Tuesday.

During the hearing of the Senate Committee on Women, Charge d'Affaires Atty. Vida Soraya Verzosa said that through their negotiations with the Syrian government, they were able to secure the repatriation of Filipina household service workers "Alice" and "Belen."

"Si Alice ay naka-schedule at si Belen na pauwi within two weeks because of our coordination with their recruitment agencies through the process of dealing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs," she said.

(Alice and Belen are scheduled to go home within two weeks because of our coordination with their recruitment agencies through the process of dealing with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs.)

"Alice" and "Belen," in video interviews with the office of Senator Risa Hontiveros, alleged that personnel from the Bureau of Immigration were involved in their trafficking to Syria.

They claimed that BI personnel were paid P50,000 for each of them to be able to get them to Syria.

Foreign Affairs Undersecretary Sarah Lou Arriola said Syria has been under Alert Level 4  since 2011, which means there should be a mandatory repatriation of OFWs from the country due to the ongoing civil war there.

Despite this, Arriola said around 300 Filipina household service workers are in Syria. A total of 39 of them have been repatriated in 2020.

Arriola said that despite the deployment ban to Syria, local recruiters have resumed recruiting Filipina household service workers to the country in 2016 due to improving security situation there.

"The Philippine government treats these deployments as trafficking in persons cases, while the Syrian authorities treat these as illegitimate since allegedly the Filipino workers possess valid deployment documents such as contracts and sometimes iqama regardless of the circumstances under which they were recruited," she said.

When these workers decided to run away from their employers, Arriola said, the Department of Foreign Affairs usually has a hard time bringing them back to the Philippines due to the requirement of exit visas issued by their employers.

"In order to repatriate them, the Philippine government had to previously buy out contracts of some household service workers," she said.

"However, the practice has been stopped and instead our Philippine Embassy has commenced filing court cases against erring employers and Syrian employers in 2019," she added.

Verzosa said they are working hand in hand with the Syrian government to secure the exit visas for the Filipina household service workers.

Meanwhile, BI commissioner Jaime Morento revealed the names of the immigration officers who stamped the passports of the four trafficked Filipina workers who shared their experience in the Senate hearing, including "Alice" and "Belen."

Apart from these individuals, Morente said the Department of Foreign Affairs has referred around 44 names of possible trafficked women. He added that they have also identified that immigration officers who stamped the departure clearance of these trafficked individuals.

"They are now the subject of a fact-finding committee that I created and I have requested also the DOJ (Department of Justice) to help in the investigation of this," he added. —KBK, GMA News