Seven Filipinos, who are alleged victims of human trafficking, have been rescued and repatriated to the Philippines, the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) said. In a statement, IACAT said “the Filipino victims were rescued through the efforts of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) and were assisted until their arrival in the Philippines.” It said those repatriated arrived last Monday evening, April 3, from Bangkok, Thailand.  They left the Philippines as tourists in October 2022 and were promised to work as customer service representatives, it also said. “As in the case of many Filipino victims of Human Trafficking in the Southeast Asian Region, they were transported to Myanmar to work in call centers engaged in online scamming and other illegal activities,” IACAT said. “They experienced much difficulty in Myanmar including the confiscation of their passports, forced labor with different employers, beatings, and electrocution for failure to meet sales quotas,” it cited. The inter-agency council said that the Philippine National Police-Women and Child Protection Center (PNP-WCPC) has begun its investigation by taking the statements of the victims, “all of whom were able to identify their traffickers in the Philippines.” The IACAT, which is led by the Department of Justice (DOJ), is expected to file criminal charges once the case build-up is complete. It reiterated its warning to the public not to fall prey to human trafficking schemes that “targets educated, professional, well-travelled, and tech savvy individuals to work in regional call centers engaged in online scamming and other fraudulent activities.” “Working abroad requires documentation, legal processes, and clearances from pertinent government agencies that were designed to protect Filipinos from Human Trafficking, Illegal Recruitment, and other dangers abroad,” it said. Again, IACT defended the policy to implement departure formalities to departing Filipino passengers which has become the cause of complaints for missing and rebooking flights. It pointed out that “Filipinos who leave the country as tourists, but in reality, have the intention to work abroad, deliberately mislead the BI (Bureau of Immigration) and other IACAT member-agencies to avoid detection without complying with government requirements.” “The Departure Formalities is one of the measures to prevent human trafficking and is preferred over rescue and repatriation operations which entail not only a lot of challenges and expenses, but come at a point when the physical, emotional, and mental suffering of victims has already been consummated,” it explained.