Twelve Filipino citizens, who became victims of illegal trafficking and were traded as commodities in Myanmar, were successfully returned to the Philippines. The repatriation, coordinated by the Philippine government, is currently under the auspices of the Department of Migrant Workers, which provides comprehensive assistance. The group arrived at terminal 3 of NAIA airport in the town of Pasay on Cebu Pacific flight 57864. This successful operation was made possible thanks to the combined efforts of the Philippine consulate and the office on migration issues in Bangkok.
According to a representative of the DMW, among the support services provided to the repatriated citizens, there were psychological counseling, financial assistance, and legal support. At the site of their repatriation, all victims also received critical support from a government team, which included the DMW, the Bureau of Immigration, the Ministry of Social Development and Welfare, the National Bureau of Investigation, the Ministry, and NAIA Task Force against human traffickers.
Those who suffered initially were connected on Facebook to a recruiter who falsely advertised vacancies for sales managers in Myanmar. After this, they found themselves among 250 people detained in a center in a lockdown and subsequently freed at the Thai borders in Phop Pra.
Instead of promised benefits, they were forced to become victims of traffickers in a network, subjected to physical violence in the form of beatings with sticks from PVC and electric shocks, and they were also forced to fulfill menial physical tasks hourly. When the victims tried to escape from the exploitative situation, they were faced with a demand for a ransom of 15,000 dollars, an amount they could not pay.
