The Bureau of Immigration (BI) recently announced the successful repatriation of three Filipino men who were trafficked into Myanmar to be part of a scamming operation.
The survivors, all aged between their 20s and early 30s, were initially lured through Facebook with offers of lucrative call center jobs in Thailand. Instead, they found themselves forcibly taken from Mae Sot, Thailand to Myanmar by boat.
Upon reaching Myanmar, the men were pressurized into joining a scamming racket that duped Americans and Europeans into investing in bogus cryptocurrency accounts. Trapped in an abusive environment, they were made to work for an exhausting 16 to 18 hours daily without any breaks. Failure to meet weekly targets was met with severe physical punishment, including intensive exercises.
Though the victims had access to their mobile phones, they were under constant surveillance by their captors.
It was only after paying a hefty sum of approximately Php 90,000 that the victims were permitted to return to the Philippines. Thanks to the intervention of the BI, they have now been safely reunited with their families.