MANILA -- Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) recently foiled several attempts by a syndicate to smuggle four illegal aliens to the United Kingdom and Canada, using Manila as a jump-off point.
In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI port operations division chief Marc Red Mariñas said the intercepted foreign passengers included two Congolese nationals, a Pakistani and a Chinese, all of whom were confined at the bureau’s detention facility pending deportation proceedings.
Mariñas said Pakistani Waheed Zeeshan and Chinese national Bo Hong were apprehended last Jan. 17 while Congolese passengers Naty Kanda Mizidi and Caleb Mizidi were arrested on Jan. 21 at the NAIA 2 terminal.
Morente commended the BI officers responsible for thwarting the human smuggling operations involving the foreigners who attempted to gain illegal entry to the West, using spurious travel documents given to them by the syndicate.
Morente said the apprehensions were only the latest in a series of botched attempts by human smuggling syndicates to use Manila as a transit point for their operations.
“Thanks to the vigilance of our immigration officers at the airport, they have frustrated the nefarious activities of these syndicates,” the BI chief added.
Zeeshan was apprehended upon his arrival from Kuala Lumpur and after BI fraud examiners certified that the British passport he presented was bogus.
It was learned that he planned to leave Manila for London on Jan. 26 and that he has two Pakistani passports in his luggage.
Hong, on the other hand, was stopped from leaving for Toronto after he tried to leave by presenting a fake Mexican passport. The Canadian embassy later certified that the Canadian visa sticker on the passport was counterfeit.
Meanwhile, the two Africans attempted to leave for Vancouver but were offloaded after it was found that the Canadian visas on their passports were forged. (PR)
