2 arrested for allegedly recruiting Pinoys for Myanmar scam hubs —BI

Authorities arrested two individuals allegedly involved in the recruitment of more than 200 Filipinos rescued in scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Monday. 

BI Commissioner Joel Viado said the Philippine National Police (PNP) and the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) apprehended the two suspects identified as alias ‘Fiona’ and alias ‘Jon Jon’ in two separate operations. 

Alias ‘Fiona’ was arrested by the PNP in Zamboanga after being tagged by victims as an alleged facilitator of their “illegal exit” through the backdoor. The victims said the suspect allegedly convinced them to depart the country illegally via the backdoor, offering them work abroad as customer service representatives.

Meanwhile,  alias ‘Jon Jon’ was arrested by the NBI after he was tagged by his colleagues. The suspect was initially among those rescued in Myanmar but he was later identified by the other victims as one of the recruiters who offered work in Thailand but ended up transporting them to Myanmar where they were abused and forced to work as scammers.

“This is a problem of migrant workers being lured by false promises, with all of them leaving under false pretenses or via illegal means,” said Viado. 

“As a member-agency of the IACAT, we vow to continue doing our share to protect our kababayan from being victimized,” he said.

On March 25, a total of 30 Filipinos alleged to be human trafficking victims returned to the Philippines after being rescued from scam hubs in Myawaddy, Myanmar.

The following day, 176 Filipino repatriates from Myanmar arrived.

The BI last week relieved seven of its personnel suspected to be involved in the illegal exit of the Filipino victims.—AOL, GMA Integrated News