The Bureau of Immigration (BI) is on alert after it discovered several outbound Filipino workers were using either fake or used overseas employment certificates (OEC).
The alert comes after BI offloaed several overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) at Ninoy Aquino International Airport Monday.
oecThe agency bared that hundreds of unused OEC’s are now in possession of unscrupulous individuals who are using for human trafficking activities. These certificates are then presented to immigration counter to allow travelers disguised as documented OFWs.
Commissioner Siegfred Mison ordered officers at all airports in the country to review closely all OECs of departing OFWs, especially those destination is the Middle East.
Intercepted OFWs claimed they bought the fake document from a recruiter for P40,000. The identity of the recruiter has been withheld pending an ongoing probe.
OEC is a document held by OFWs that exempt them from paying airport fees such as travel tax and terminal fee. The Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has the authority to issue OECs to legitimate OFWs.
credit to [ Pinoy OFW ]
Good, sooner or later these useless OECs are bound to be fake as well. I’d say abolish OEC altogether, the useless scrap of paper is being used for corruption anyway. All the “efforts” they put to stop human trafficking is utterly useless and just makes life for everyone difficult. Better focus instead on providing more opportunities for citizens in the home country and better support for those working abroad. Make documents easier to process to encourage proper documentation instead of making it too difficult like having to go through a needle’s head.