IT was a tough and hard experience for 10 Filipino victims of human trafficking in Myanmar scam centers, from where they were lured with fake offers of high-paying jobs and forced to work without pay. They suffered threats and abuse and became desperate to get home. They recently contacted the Preda Foundation, a child protection and anti-trafficking organization in Olongapo City. Four of them have escaped from the scam center. Preda is in contact with the Philippine Department of Migrant Workers (DMW) and lawyer Don Albert Philippe C. Pangcog, the labor attaché at the Migrant Workers Office in Bangkok who has been helping many Filipinos escape the scam centers in Myanmar and those in the Thai processing centers to return to the Philippines.
After they escaped, the 10 Filipinos were advised by Col. Dominador Matalang at the Bangkok Embassy to cross from Myanmar to Thailand, and four did so. Thai authorities have ruled that they are not trafficking victims, as they had not been beaten. The Philippine Embassy will do all it can to pay the fines levied by the Thai authorities and free them from custody. That is 20,000 baht for each person, which equals to P34,062.96. The embassy has already booked flights for them.
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