MANILA, Philippines (PNA) – Nine Lebanon-bound Filipino women who attempted to leave the country using passports with fake immigration departure stamps were intercepted by immigration agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

This was disclosed Friday by Bureau of Immigration Acting Commissioner Ronaldo Ledesma who said the women who planned to work as domestic helpers in Beirut, Lebanon were about to board a Philippine Airlines flight to Singapore when intercepted.

Ledesma said the Filipino women also planned to take a connecting flight to Lebanon despite the Philippine government’s long-standing ban on the deployment of overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) to Lebanon.

He said the would-be OFWs were seen hurriedly walking past the immigration counters when spotted by members of the bureau’s travel control enforcement unit at the NAIA who immediately accosted the nine women.

According to Ledesma, the would-be OFWs evaded inspection by immigration officers because their passports already had fake immigration departure stamps.

“It is obvious that the human trafficking syndicates are feeling the pinch of our intensified campaign that they are resorting to all means to bring their victims out of the country,” he said.

BI airport operations division chief, Lawyer Maria Antonette Bucasas, did not divulge the names of the intercepted would-be OFWs in deference to their plight as human trafficking victims.

Bucasas, however, said that the nine women admitted during questioning that they were hired to work as domestic helpers in that Middle East country.