In less than a year, there have been four attempts at human trafficking using Havana as a transit point.
In the latest incident, two Filipino nationals were victimized by a certain "Leonid ‘Ned' Pascual", who is already implicated in previous cases of human trafficking and is currently included in Cuba's immigration blacklist.
The two unsuspecting victims paid more than P500,000 each to Pascual to bring them to the Bahamas where they were supposed to be employed with a salary of US$5,000 a month.
Upon their arrival in Havana, the victims discovered that the jobs promised them were non-existent and found themselves stranded in the Cuban capital.
The Philippine Embassy in Havana assisted the stranded Filipinos by providing them with food and accommodation and facilitated their return to the Philippines.
The Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) reiterates its warning to the public to be wary of illegal recruiters promising lucrative employment opportunities abroad and to first verify such opportunities so as to avoid being victimized.
The DFA further urges Filipinos who wish to work in the Bahamas and other Caribbean Islands to go through the proper channels such as the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) and the Overseas Workers' Welfare Administration (OWWA). END