By: Jun Ramirez
Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have foiled an attempt by nine Indians to enter the country with bogus travel documents.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente said the Indians, who were caught with fake visas and other spurious documents, were intercepted last Wednesday at the NAIA 3 terminal upon their arrival aboard a Cathay Pacific flight from Hong Kong.
Morente said the Indians were immediately stopped from entering the country and sent back on the first available flight to their port of origin.
“I have also ordered their inclusion in our blacklist because they are undesirable aliens who blatantly violated our laws by using spurious immigration documents in trying to enter our country,” the BI chief said.
He added that the incident will be further investigated to find out if there were any BI personnel or employees from other agencies at the NAIA who were behind the foiled human smuggle try.
The Indians were identified as Chinchorkar Udayan Raju, Surjit Singh, Kari Ram Kiran, Tandel Gatiraj narsinhbhai, Jaspreet Singh, Gore Chetan Vinod, Toppo Clinson Christophar, Varinder Singh, and Amandeep Singh.
Marc Red Mariñas, BI port operations division chief, said the Indians, who claimed to be seafarers from Mumbai, all presented counterfeit single entry visa-upon-arrival (SEVUA) visas instead of valid seaman’s visas that the law requires them to secure from a Philippine consulate abroad.