BI to go after online sellers of fake documents

THE Bureau of Immigration warned the public of fake overseas employment certificates being sold online via platforms like Facebook, WhatsApp and TikTok.

The overseas employment certificate is a basic requirement for departing overseas Filipino workers (OFWs) issued solely by the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration, an adjunct agency of the Department of Migrant Workers (DMW).

«These social media networks are being used to sell these fake papers, which are required for departing OFWs. It is not difficult to get an overseas employment certificate, visit the website of the DMW, as all the legal overseas jobs are listed on the site,» Immigration spokesman Dana Sandoval said in a TV interview.

«Some of our countrymen are being enticed by illegal recruiters or human traffickers to work abroad through illegal means, sometimes using a tourist or a work visa that did not go through the right process, and through this scheme, some people buy overseas employment certificates and would get caught in Immigration,» she added.

Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said any attempt to circumvent immigration documents would fail because of the agency's fool-proof system.

«Our system is integrated with the DMW, making it easier for us to detect fake certificates,» he added.

Tansingco said selling fake documents to aid the illegal departure of workers is a serious crime that falls under human trafficking.