By Philip C. Tubeza
Philippine Daily Inquirer
If you are a Filipino woman hoping to have a nice vacation in Bali, be careful.
Two Filipino tourists, one of them a blogger, suffered “rude and unfair†treatment “akin to racial profiling†at the hands of immigration officers in Bali, Indonesia, recently, a nonprofit organization said yesterday.
The Blas F. Ople Policy Center, which assists distressed overseas Filipinos workers, sought the help of the Department of Foreign Affairs (DFA) in “obtaining justice†for the two Filipino women who were interrogated and bodily searched at the Bali airport.
“The Philippines and Indonesia share a deep and warm friendship. The unprofessional and unethical behavior of a few immigration agents in Bali towards Filipino tourists must immediately be corrected because it smacks of racial or ethnic profiling, something that is unexpected of a true friend like Indonesia,†said former Labor Undersecretary Susan Ople, head of the Ople Center.
Ople said the two women, who preferred to remain anonymous, went to Bali as tourists. But in the immigration line, they were singled out and ushered into the immigration office where they were subjected to a bag and body search “without justification.â€
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