The Philippine government has implemented a new scheme to quickly process departing Filipino migrant workers in order to ease their travel out of the country.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has formed a special team that will focus on conducting pre-screening of migrant workers and attend to their immigration needs at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport, Philippine Information Agency reported.
Grifton Medina, BI port operations division chief, issued an order to designate immigration counters to be used exclusively by departing migrant workers. Medina said he issued the directive in compliance with the order of the Philippines president that immigration departure formalities for migrant workers be conducted expeditiously and efficiently.
“Our objective is to see to it that our modern-day heroes are given all the care and courtesy that they deserve in sacrificing not only for their families but for the country as well,” Medina said.
Medina said a passenger is normally processed within 45 seconds and estimates that the scheme may decrease the processing time up to 33%. He said migrant workers who are referred for secondary inspection due to concerns over their travel documents will likewise be prioritized and the matter resolved within 10 minutes.
“It’s a matter of deploying more people to focus on our migrant workers,” he said.