The City Hall of Zamboanga. (PNA file photo)
ZAMBOANGA CITY – The Zamboanga Sea-Based Anti-Trafficking Task Force rescued 48 potential victims of anti-trafficking in person in this southern port city on Monday night.
In a statement Wednesday, Col. Alexander Lorenzo, the city police director, said the rescued victims consisted of 39 adults and nine minors.
“They are from Luzon, Visayas, and other parts of Mindanao,” Lorenzo said.
The would-be victims were rescued while they were about to board a wooden-hulled vessel at a private wharf in Barangay Baliwasan on Monday evening.
Lorenzo said the group was scheduled to travel to Tawi-Tawi province, then to Malaysia without the necessary travel documents. He said the adult victims admitted they were hired to work in Malaysia.
The victims were rescued after an intelligence report that a group of individuals was set to travel to Malaysia from this city.
Lorenzo said the group was traveling together with a “coordinator” who was not around when the task force members arrived at the private wharf.
The rescued victims were temporarily housed at the Processing Center for Displaced Persons of the Department of Social Welfare and Development in Barangay Mampang here. (PNA)
