30 alleged trafficking victims repatriated from Myanmar

Thirty Filipinos alleged to be human trafficking victims have returned to the Philippines after being repatriated from  Myanmar.

According to Bam Alegre’s report on Unang Balita, the first batch of Filipino repartees arrived early Tuesday after they were rescued in scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar.

One of the repartees shared how they were treated inside the scam hubs in Myanmar.

“Mahirap talaga doon e. Papangakuan kayo ng mataas na sahod tapos pagdating niyo don, hindi naman. Mauubos yung sahod niyo,” the rescued Filipino who opted to stay anonymous said.

(Life is hard there. They will promise you high salaries, but they won’t fulfill their promise.)

“Pag hindi kayo naka-reach ng quota, ibibilad nila kayo sa araw. Tapos may mga times na wala kayong morning break. Almost 17 hours kami nagtatrabaho dun,” he added.

The alleged victims of human trafficking shared that they were told to use other names while engaging in crypto and love scams.

“Literally, scamming talaga. Ang work namin is magpapanggap kami na rich guy or rich women and then kukunin mo yung trust ng client. ‘Pag nakuha mo na yung trust ng client, pipilitin mo silang mag invest sa platform ninyo,” he said.

(What we do is literally scamming other people. We will pretend to be a rich guy/woman and then we will get the trust of the client. Once they trust us, we will convince them to invest in our platform.)

According to the report, the rescued Filipino was able to escape from his employers when Myanmar’s military officers raided the scam hub.

The Filipino victims were reportedly recruited through social media.

Before they arrived in Myanmar, the victims stopped in Hong Kong and Thailand first.

The Department of Migrant Workers reiterated its warning against offers that are “too good to be true.”

DMW Undersecretary Bernard Olalia explained that most of human trafficking cases won’t allow the recruited persons to go through the regular departure process, but through backdoors.

Another batch composed of 100 Filipinos are expected to arrive on Wednesday.

Olalia said the rescued Filipinos will receive P50,000 from DMW and P10,000 from the Overseas Workers Welfare Adminsitration.

Apart from the financial assistance, the DMW will also provide legal assistance and reintegration program for the human trafficking victims. — Hana Bordey/RSJ, GMA Integrated News