ZAMBOANGA City– The multi-agency Sea-Based Anti-Trafficking Task Force (SBATTF) has arrested three suspected illegal recruiters, including a Malaysian couple, and rescued 34 would-be human trafficking victims on Tuesday in a raid in this city.
Lourdes Francisco, a City Social Welfare and Development Office (CSWDO) staff, said the suspects were arrested in a raid at a safe house of the suspected illegal recruiters in Barangay Mampang, six kilometers east of City Hall.
Francisco said the raid was carried out after the task force received reliable information related to human trafficking activities of the three suspects in Barangay Mampang.
Two of the three arrested suspects were Malaysian citizens who even tried to conceal their identities by mixing up and pretending to be among the rescued victims.
The other suspect is a Filipino only identified as a certain Hadji Pacsa, a resident of Barangay Mampang, this city.
Francisco said the rescued would-be victims were all girls, some of them minors and were bound to work in Malaysia.
She said some of the potential victims are from Jolo, Sulu and other places.
She said the members of the task force also recovered 114 passports and other documents required for the application of passports. pna
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