By Jun Ramirez
Two-hundred thirty two foreign fugitives who hid in the country to evade prosecution and sentences for crimes they committed in their homelands were arrested by the Bureau of Immigration last year.
BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the number was 97 more compared to the 135 caught in 2016.
Morente said the aliens were arrested in various operations conducted by operatives of the BI Fugitive Search Unit headed by BI intelligence officer Bobby Raquepo.
Morente added that all of the captured fugitives last year have been deported to their homelands where they are now being tried or serving their jail sentences.
“They were also placed in our blacklist of undesirable aliens to make sure that they do not return to the Philippines and pose a risk to our public safety and security,” the BI chief said.
Raquepo said that among the captured fugitives last year were classified as “high value targets” due to the nature and gravity of their crimes.
Among them was Hussein Aldhafiri, a Kuwaiti bomb maker and suspected Islamic State member, whose arrest in Taguig City last March foiled his plot to attack a mosque and a military base in his country.
He was arrested in the company of a Syrian woman named Rahaf Zina, alleged widow of the late Abu Jandal, former ISIS leader in Iraq.
