By Rey E. Requejo
The Department of Justice Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking said it would be implementing stricter departure formalities next month to address the increasing number of human trafficking victims.
Under the revised guidelines released on Tuesday, aside from the inspection of basic travel documents, immigration officers may ask relevant clarificatory questions and require outbound passengers to show additional supporting documents.
The IACAT said the secondary inspection should not exceed 15 minutes unless extraordinary circumstances require a longer period of inspections.
The 15-minute period will commence at the start of the interview by the secondary inspection officer.
The DOJ assured that the revised guidelines would not curtail the constitutionally guaranteed right of the people to travel “but will serve as a protective bulwark shielding our fellow citizens from the dire perils of human trafficking.”
The revised guidelines will take effect on September 3.
BI spokesperson Dana Sandoval said immigration officers would be looking for documents to prove the relations of a Filipino going overseas with a foreign partner, including photos, among others.
Immigration personnel would also scrutinize the financial capacity of the foreigner to fund the travel and whether the foreigner has already sponsored a trip before.
“We need to clarify that this is not a means to be strict on our citizens because in fact, based on our data, only 0.6 percent of departing passengers have not been allowed to travel vis a vis their actual purpose of travel,” Sandoval said.
The IACAT also prescribed new requirements for parents traveling with their children.
Passengers traveling with a minor are required to present a certificate of exemption from the Department of Social Welfare and Development if the parents are not married or if the traveling companion is a legal guardian, biological father who has sole parental authority, or legal custody over minor orphans traveling with substitute parents.
The guidelines also listed the grounds for immigration officers to defer the departure of a passenger: refusal to undergo secondary inspection; doubtful purpose of travel; inconsistent or insufficient travel or supporting documents; misrepresentation or withholding of material information about the travel; presentation of fraudulent, falsified, or tampered travel or supporting documents; non-compliance with previous deferred-departure requirements; or the passenger is a potentially trafficked or illegally recruited person, or a suspected trafficker/illegal recruiter.
“IACAT ardently anticipates that the enforcement of these meticulously refined guidelines, complemented by an enhanced regime of information dissemination, will effectuate a palpable reduction, if not outright elimination, of human trafficking incidents,” the agency said.
DOJ spokesman Jose Dominic Clavano said the revision aims to address emergent trends in human trafficking.
“The problem has become severe because we have seen a lot of cases wherein Filipinos who are being employed to a regular job abroad are being conned into human trafficking schemes and we’ve seen it too many times that we need to rescue them from abroad,” Clavano said.
“So, these new guidelines seek to screen them thoroughly before they leave so we don’t have any reasons to initiate rescues,” he added.