The Bureau of Immigration on Sunday lauded the recent arrest of a person posing as an accredited liaison officer in Pasig City.

In a statement, Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente thanked operatives of the Pasig City Police for reportedly arresting the fake officer in Brgy. San Joaquin, Pasig.

The bureau, citing news reports, said the arrested man enticed a woman to pay more than P300,000 as placement fee to work in Africa.  

But the suspect failed to show up at the airport during the victim’s supposed flight. Upon checking, it was also found out that the flight details given to the victims were fake.

“This is a win for our kababayan who are victimized by these unscrupulous individuals,” said Morente.

“We encourage people to report these illegal recruiters and human traffickers, who prey on the vulnerabilities of aspiring OFWs.  Let them face the harshest penalties of the law and rot in jail,” the BI chief added.

The BI earlier reported that it intercepted almost 500 trafficking and illegal recruitment victims that attempted to depart during the from January to September this year.

BI also reported a total of 8,413 passengers who were deferred departure during the same period for being improperly documented.