Woman nabbed for ‘trafficking’ workers to Israel

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) intercepted a woman who allegedly tried to escort eight victims to work in Israel despite the ongoing war. In a statement on Friday, the bureau said the woman attempted to depart with the victims onboard an Emirates Airlines flight at the Clark International Airport in Pampanga on April 23 in the guise of a pilgrimage to Israel.

“The victims later admitted that they would work as hospital and hotel cleaners upon their arrival in Israel with a promised monthly salary of P60,000 to P80,000,” the BI said. Just last week, the Department of Foreign Affairs reaffirmed that its previous declaration of Alert Level 2 for the State of Israel, restricting further deployments of overseas Filipino workers to that area, remained in place.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco slammed the scheme, saying that the recruiter must be imprisoned for putting the victims in harm’s way. According to the BI, the nine passengers were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for processing. —JANE BAUTISTA