Manila, Philippines –  The Bureau of Immigration (BI) turned over to the Department of Justice (DoJ) 18 Filipinos bound for Saudi Arabia after they were held for being suspected victims of illegal recruiters and trafficking in person syndicates.

BI officer-in-charge Ronaldo Ledesma disclosed Sunday that the 18 passengers were intercepted by alert immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) last Aug. 21 as they were about to board a Philippine Airlines flight to Riyadh.

“The cases of the 18 passengers will be referred to Justice Secretary Leila De Lima for further investigation and prosecution of those responsible for recruiting and facilitating their trip,” Ledesma added.

The BI chief said the Filipinos presented questionable documents and gave conflicting and inconsistent statements when interviewed, thus prompting the immigration officers to disallow their departure.

Upon investigation, the passengers presented clearances purportedly issued by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) showing that they were hired to work as salesmen.

But further examination of the passengers’ passports revealed that the visas issued to them were for hired carpenters and not for salesmen.

“It was very evident that their job description and visa do not match, thus we had no choice but to disallow their departure,” BI-Airport Operations Division (AOD) chief Arvin Santos added.

The BI has been offloading suspected “tourist workers” or undocumented overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) by the hundreds since August as an offshoot of a directive from Secretary De Lima for the bureau to intensify the campaign against human trafficking.