Fast buck for Naia immigration men

I am hoping that this letter about Bureau of Immigration personnel at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) gets the attention of the officials concerned because putting an end to this irregularity would help a lot of Filipinos with a legitimate purpose in traveling abroad.

I understand and appreciate very much the purpose of the measures taken by our government to somehow prevent or control human trafficking—e.g., by closely scrutinizing travel documents and the purpose of our outbound kababayan in leaving the country. Unfortunately, corrupt immigration personnel are using these measures to make a fast buck—P30,000 as “escort fee” per person.

In my modest estimate, every day there are at least 50 Filipinos who travel to the United Arab Emirates on visit visas; around 30-40 percent of them are forced to get an “escort” in order to meet the deadline of their visas and not to miss the job opportunity their relatives have found for them here, lest the expenses already incurred for their visas and airfares go to waste. You can just imagine the total “earnings” these corrupt immigration people are making every day. They and their collaborators would soon become multi-millionaires at the expense of our hapless kababayans.

I know some of those who have gone through this experience, and they have the contact numbers of the corrupt officials and their collaborators.

—DANILO P. DORAO,

senior project manager,

ARJ Engineering Services-Dubai,

ddorao@hotmail.com