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There are over one million Filipinos working outside of the Philippines, most in legitimate work contracts. These people are called "Overseas Filipino Workers" (OFWs).
Every year OFW’s compete for the best contracts to work as far as the United States or as close as Indonesia, Thailand, and Korea, but most end up in the Middle East. Most of the time these contracts last for 2 to 3 years and are successfully completed. Being an OFW is a legitimate, if not exceedingly difficult, way for a Filipino to provide for their families.
Since the pandemic rose in 2020 in the Philippines, much of the tourism industry died causing another kind of hardship on those already caught in the sex trafficking bar scene. Many of these victims have unsuccessfully tried to find legitimate OFW jobs because they could not afford the passport or the training.
Recent news revealed traffickers are taking advantage of this hardship and creating fake jobs, fake contracts, and forging documents so these needy Filipinos can be fully taken advantage of. We have discovered they are being lured into accepting these fake documents and finding a port of exit from the Philippines. When they arrive at their destination expecting a real job, they are captured and sold into slavery all over again.
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