Five Filipino girls who were on their way to Riyadh in Saudi Arabia were stopped from boarding their flight at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila for carrying false identity documents.
On Tuesday, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said the five girls were trying to pass themselves off as adults and had valid overseas employment certificates, employment contracts and working visas, ABS-CBN News reported.
Marc Red Mariñas, the BI officer-in-charge deputy commissioner, said the girls were evasive and gave inconsistent answers when asked about their ages and dates of birth.
“This is a clear case of human trafficking involving a syndicate that sends young girls to work abroad by letting them assume the identities of older women through falsification and tampering of travel documents,” Mariñas said.
The girls were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking for further investigation.
Read: Filipina teenager caught travelling on fake identity papers