The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) on Tuesday said that at least 16 Filipinos who are allegedly victimized by human trafficking in Myanmar are seeking help from the Philippine government to have them rescued in conflict areas where they are working.
DFA Undersecretary for Migrant Workers Eduardo de Vega stressed that overseas Filipino workers who are legally working in Myanmar are not assigned in areas being controlled by the rebels. Nonetheless, he admitted that some OFWs are still working in rebel-infested areas as they are undocumented and compelled to work as scammers.
“Who are the Filipinos in the conflicted areas? These are not legal workers. They are those you have heard about six months ago, the trafficking victims who were promised good jobs in Thailand, but they were brought elsewhere,” De Vega said, in an interview with Super Radyo dzBB interview.
De Vega said the DFA has already rescued 143 Filipino trafficking victims in Myanmar and have been repatriated to the Philippines.
According to him, around 30 to 40 more undocumented OFWs are still in Myanmar, but only 16 clearly expressed desire to go home due to various reasons.
“There are about 16 OFWs whose families are contacting us. However, we haven’t been able to rescue them yet because it’s difficult. The rebels are still in control of these areas. Although when I was there, the police authorities promised that they would find a way to help them,” De Vega said.
The DFA recently downgraded the alert level status in Myanmar from Alert Level 4 to Alert Level 2, allowing OFWs with working visas to return to Myanmar.
But under this “restriction phase,” there will still be no new deployment of OFWs to Myanmar and only those with existing employment contracts are allowed to return to the concerned country.
There are more than 400 OFWs in Myanmar, according to the DFA.
In May 2021, the DFA raised Alert Level 4 in Myanmar following the armed conflict arising from the coup staged by a military group.