BI 7 Director Reynaldo Almaden said his office has the power to stop passengers from leaving if there is a hold- departure order from the court, if he or she is in the watchlist, or if he or she is a threat to national security.

Almaden said that while there is a right to travel as guaranteed by the Constitution, that right has to be curtailed if the intention to travel is to illegally work abroad.

Director Evelia Dorato of the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) has been complaining that OFWs who work illegally are those who leave as tourists.

Some of them depart for Singapore where only a passport is needed, then proceed to Lebanon and other countries in the Middle East and Europe.

Singapore is part of the 10-member Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean) where a visa is not required.

Illegal OFWs and illegal recruiters are taking advantage by first flying to any of these countries, and proceed to their country of destination.

Dorato said that because these OFWs have no working permits, POEA can hardly trace them once they are subjected to abuse by their foreign employers.

Dorato said that oftentimes, families of OFWs who are working illegally abroad seek the agency’s assistance to trace their whereabouts.

But it is hard to trace them especially, if they left as tourists and their recruiters are unknown.

Almaden said that if the passengers possess tourist visa but they are bound for countries without tourist spots, then they can be stopped.

Several passengers, who would have left to work abroad but were disguised as tourists, were stopped from leaving at the Mactan Cebu International Airport, where there are several flights for Singapore and Malaysia.

Early this week, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said human trafficking syndicates are again actively using Southeast Asian and some Philippine airports as transit points for Canada and Europe. (PNA)