By Jun Ramirez Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers in the different ports nationwide stopped more than 14,000 travelers from leaving the country during the first five months of the year due to its relentless campaign against human trafficking. Bureau of Immigration (Manila Bulletin File Photo) In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI Deputy Commissioner Marc Red Mariñas said that of the 14,076 passengers offloaded from January to May, 59 were suspected trafficking victims and referred to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for investigation. Also barred from leaving during the period, he said, were 170 passengers who had questionable travel papers. Mariñas reported that last month alone, immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) intercepted 67 minors who attempted to leave by passing themselves as adults and using fraudulently acquired documents. The minors reportedly had genuine overseas work permits, working visas, and employment contracts which their recruiters managed to procure for them through fraud and misrepresentation. Also offloaded in June were 19 passengers identified as possible human trafficking victims who were also turned over to IACAT. “We were successful in foiling several attempts by international syndicates to use the NAIA as a transit point for smuggling illegal aliens to other countries such as Canada and the United Kingdom,” Mariñas said. “Those involved were apprehended, detained and later deported and blacklisted.” Morente, meanwhile, welcomed the Philippines’ retention in Tier 1 of the US State Department’s 2018 trafficking in persons (TIP) report even as he vowed there would be no letup in the BI's campaign to combat trafficking in the country’s ports of entry and exit.