MANILA — More than 1,500 foreigners or “undesirable aliens” were barred from entering the country in the first quarter of 2018, with Chinese nationals topping the list with 583, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said on Wednesday,
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente noted that a total of 1,521 aliens were barred from January to April, which is lower than the 1,700 who were turned away in the same period last year.
Also included in the list are Indians, 123; Koreans, 103; Americans, 72 and Nigerians, 36.
Morente said the bulk of the “aliens” were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport while others who were turned away in the airports of Mactan, Clark, Kalibo, Iloilo, and Davao.
The exclusion of foreigners is part of the agency’s rigorous efforts to thwart the entry of “undesirable aliens” into the country.
“We were able to stop these unwanted aliens from entering our country due to the continued vigilance of immigration officers manning our ports of entry. They have been very zealous in performing their jobs as gatekeepers of our country,” Morente said in a statement.
He added that most of foreigners were denied entry after they were identified as likely to become public charges, or foreigners who are likely to become dependent on government for subsistence due to his lack of capacity to support his stay in the country, thus making him an added burden to society.
A foreigner may also be denied entry if based on the immigration officer’s assessment his presence in the country is inimical to the national interest or a threat to public health and safety.
On the other hand, acting BI port operations division chief Marc Red Mariñas said that those who were denied entry included foreigners who are in the bureau’s blacklist of “undesirable aliens” such as fugitives, suspected terrorists, and convicted sex offenders.”
“We also turned away foreign passengers who did not have entry visas and those who failed to procure outbound tickets which is a basic requirement for foreign tourists,” he said.
He also attributed the slight drop in number of excluded “aliens” to the employment of Chinese-speaking interpreters who helped remove the language barrier that in the past posed a problem to their personnel when interviewing passengers. ( Ferdinand Patinio/PNA)
