JUSTICE Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II on Wednesday directed the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) and the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to work closely to identify and prosecute those involved in human-smuggling activities.
Aguirre made the order after the BI collared five foreign nationals allegedly involved in human-smuggling attempts, either as victims themselves or as perpetrators between November 25 and December 4.
“They were all found in possession of spurious travel documents which they intended to use in gaining illegal entry to the UK,” the BI said in a statement.
Intercepted by immigration personnel were Somalian national Mohamoud Aden Abdinah, Chinese nationals Chen Hul Lin and Hua Juan Chen, and Iranian national Shehni Dashtegoli Reza.
Aguirre pointed out that the foreign nationals took advantage of the influx of international guests arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) in attempting to leave the country without proper documents and using Manila as their jumping-off point.
“Apparently, the efforts to smuggle these individuals manifest organized criminal efforts to use fake travel documents and should be looked into further,” Aguirre said.
Immigration agents at the Naia have been ordered to strictly monitor and keep an eye on foreigners arriving as transit passengers, following the recently foiled attempts by a syndicate to smuggle illegal aliens to the United Kingdom using Manila as a jumping-off point.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said he already issued the alert order. “We should not allow these syndicates to profit from their racket to the detriment of our nation’s prestige.”
The Chinese men were carrying tampered Macau passports, while the Iranians were using Slovakian and French passports, respectively.
The Somali pretended to be a Swedish citizen.