MANILA — Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have intercepted three foreigners who tried to enter the country with bogus travel documents in separate occasions.
In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI Port Operations Division chief Grifton Medina said the three aliens — a Kiribati citizen and two Senegalese nationals — were intercepted recently at NAIA Terminals 1 and 3.
Kiribati (an island republic in the Central Pacific) national Eliezear Mercy Obiora was intercepted at the NAIA terminal 1 last Oct. 4 while Senegalese nationals Jonas Mendy and George Mendy were apprehended last Oct. 8 and 11, respectively, at the NAIA Terminal 3.
“All of them were caught in possession of bogus passports,” Medina said, adding the passengers were immediately excluded and booked on the first available flights back to their ports of origin.
“We have also placed them in our blacklist to prevent them from returning to the Philippines,” he added.
BI Spokesperson Dana Krizia Sandoval said biographical pages of the foreigners’ passports were altered upon examination by the BI’s forensic document laboratory.
She disclosed that aside from using fake passports, the passengers were not able to explain their purpose in coming to the Philippines when interviewed by officers from the BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit.
“They did not have any clear idea on what to do and where to go once they got into the Philippines, and they were also deemed to be likely to become a public charge,” Sandoval said.
“We suspect this is an attempt to use the country as jump off point to other first world countries,” she said.
“Our officers are highly-trained to detect incidents of fraud. Add that to our technologies — I believe illegal aliens with fake documents should think twice before trying to come here,” she added. (PR)
