Two Filipinos posing as tourists were stopped from boarding their flight to Thailand on Sunday, March 17, after immigration officers found they were victims of human trafficking.

“Thanks to the vigilance of our officers at the airport, we again saved two of our countrymen from these syndicates that operate scams which harmed and ruined the lives of many people who were virtually treated as slaves by their employers,” said BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco in a statement.

Citing a report from the BI’s Immigration Protection and Border Enforcement Section (I-PROBES), Tansingco said the two men, whose names were withheld, were intercepted by immigration officers who turned them over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT) for assistance and further investigation.

The BI said “the duo initially claimed they are tourists who will be vacationing for five days in Thailand and that are locally employed in a telecommunications company which turned out to be false.”

 “They then confessed that both of them are jobless and that all the employment documents they presented are fake as these were only given to them by their Chinese recruiter,” it said.

It also said the two men revealed that “upon reaching Bangkok they were supposed to be fetched and escorted to Laos where they were hired to work as call center agents for a company believed to be involved in the notorious crypto investment scam.”

 “They added that their documents were only sent to them via courier to the hotel where they stayed prior to their flight. They were allegedly promised a monthly salary of $400 while undergoing on-the-job training and $1,000 when they become regular workers,” the bureau noted.