IN a move to minimize the exercise of discretion on the part of immigration personnel, Vice President Jejomar Binay yesterday asked the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to clarify the legal basis and show clear-cut guidelines for its policy to “offload” or prevent the departure of Filipino nationals bound for certain destinations abroad. 

In line with this, it was learned that Binay, who is also the chairman emeritus of the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking (IACAT), is set to meet with member-agencies on October 17 to discuss the BI’s policy in the wake of complaints received by his office from departing passengers.     

Binay said: “The government is conducting a serious drive against human trafficking, but this should not be at the expense of basic rights, and should be conducted in a transparent manner.”         He also expressed belief that there is a need for BI to have ‘proper guidelines’ in offloading passengers.   

“The basis for preventing a Filipino from leaving the country should be clearly spelled out to minimize the exercise of discretion on the part of immigration personnel,” he stressed.        

Statistics from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Task Force Against Trafficking in Persons (NAIA-TFATP) show that a total of 471 Filipinos have been offloaded as of September 30 this year.

This includes 28 minors, 274 “tourist workers” and 169 overseas Filipino workers who were prevented from leaving the country because of alleged irregularities in their travel documents. Most of the offloaded passengers were bound for countries like Jordan and Syria where the Philippines currently has a deployment ban.