Two Taiwanese men were arrested for allegedly recruiting struggling Filipinos into a scam hub being run out of Cambodia.

Pan Hou-lin, 66, and Zeng You-De, 54, reportedly lured cash-strapped jobseekers to overseas fraud centres before they were detained at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) in Manila.

Footage shows officers from the Philippine National Police Women and Children Protection Center (PNP-WCPC) marching the suspects out of NAIA Terminal 3 on September 22.

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) said Pan and Zeng had sponsored five Filipinos - two women and three men in their 20s - for a supposed religious activity in Taiwan.

The group initially claimed they were invited to deliver a Buddha statue to a Taiwanese church. However, investigations found they were actually bound for Cambodia to work as 'customer service representatives' with a monthly salary of 1,000 USD (750 GBP).

Police Major Shari Vanneza Deseo, spokesman for the PNP-WPC, said: 'We were informed that the Taiwanese men were fetching victims to take to Cambodia. Maybe it's because of poverty, as per our investigations, that the victims were driven to accept these kinds of jobs.'

The Filipinos claimed they were recruited through Facebook and Telegram before meeting at a house in Paranaque City, where the suspects allegedly briefed them about their documents and cover story.

The victims were turned over to the Inter-Agency Council Against Trafficking while the Taiwanese men were taken to the national police headquarters in Camp Crame.

BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said: 'We will not stop with their arrest. We will also be filing a deportation case against these two foreign nationals who are preying on the vulnerability of aspiring overseas workers. Should they be found guilty in local courts, they will serve their sentence here, and will be later deported by the BI.'

Authorities said they have also identified and are tracing a third recruiter - a Filipina based in Cambodia.

(1 GBP = 1.34 USD)