The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Monday reported that a Filipino woman who was forced to work illegally as an entertainer in a Malaysian club was deported back to the Philippines.
The human trafficking victim, identified only as “Sarah,” left for Singapore posing as a nanny of a family whom she is traveling with. However, she admitted to actually being recruited by another Filipina for a waitress job in Malaysia.
Sarah was told to pretend to be a domestic employee to avoid detection during inspection.
The victim’s recruiters instructed her to pay P20,000 for her travel expenses, which were incurred as a debt to her foreign employer.
Upon arriving in Singapore, she then took a flight to Malaysia, where someone picked her up and escorted her to a dormitory.
Sarah was forced to work as a nightclub performer for a foreign employer to pay off her recruitment debts, only to be reported to Malaysian authorities and later arrested for working without proper documentation.
“This case highlights the exploitative and unjust practices of recruiters and syndicates who profit from human trafficking, leaving victims struggling to return home and facing numerous hardships due to false promises,” Immigration Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said.
