Human-trafficking syndicates seem to never run short of victims as indicated by the recent arrest at the premier airport of three foreign passengers with spurious travel papers.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) division chief Grifton Medina said the aliens were intercepted separately last week in the departure areas of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport’s (Naia) Terminals 1 and 3.
“They are now detained at our detention facility in Bicutan, Taguig, while undergoing deportation proceedings,” Medina reported to Commissioner Jaime Morente. “Afterward, they will be blacklisted and banned from reentering the Philippines.”
He added that those arrested included two Chinese and an Indian national, all of whom were in possession of fake travel documents.
One of the Chinese, identified as 49-year-old Huang Chenghua, was intercepted last August 30, before he could board a flight to Toronto. The passenger reportedly used a Mexican passport with a Canadian visa that was found to be a counterfeit. He also presented a fake Mexican voter’s ID.
On the next day, the Immigration’s Travel Control Enforcement Unit chief Timotea C. Barizo reported that immigration agents at Naia Terminal 1 intercepted an Indian passenger named Mahipal, 25, who, likewise, attempted to leave with a fake Canadian visa on his passport.
Barizo disclosed that the Indian national was also about to board a flight to Toronto when he was stopped by members of her unit.
Meanwhile on August 16, immigration agents at the Naia Terminal 3 apprehended a Chinese national for using a stolen passport.
Wang Wenjiang, 24, was arrested for assuming the identity of a certain Xu Shao Hong, whose passport was reported stolen and lost last October 24. He was about to board a flight to Jakarta when the immigration officers found that Wang’s passport registered a positive hit in the Interpol database, indicating he is a wanted person.