The Bureau of Immigrations (BI) on Tuesday alerted its personnel after a foiling an attempt of a human trafficking syndicate to use Manila and Kuala Lumpur in Malaysia to send illegal aliens to Canada and Europe.
BI Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said law enforcement agencies at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) arrested five passenger from Malaysia bound for Vancouver and Amsterdom for the past three weeks.
BI spokesman Floro Balato said NAIA-BI personnel intercepted three Sri Lankan nationals with bogus Malaysian and Singaporean passports while about to board a flight bound for Amsterdam last Saturday.
Balato said one of the passengers identified as Vengtespura Rao Appalanaidu managed to escape while his passport and those of his companions were being examined at the airline counter.
Vengtespura was eventually arrested Monday morning inside the airport.
The Sri Lankans were immediately issued exclusion orders for deporation to Malaysia.
Meanwhile, the bureau said that a Botswanian woman was apprehended on Friday last week at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport in Angeles City for attempting to leave for Vancouver, Canada with a tampered passport.
The passenger, Tshekiso Boitumelo, had also arrived from Kuala Lumpur and was later sent back to her port of origin.
Past incidents
Records showed that Boitumelo was the third African who arrived from Malaysia to be apprehended by immigration officers in the past few weeks for attempting to slip to Canada using the Philippines as a jump-off point.
Last May 16, immigration officers at the NAIA intercepted Paulinus Chibueze, a Nigerian who tried to leave for Canada with a fake Botswanan passport.
Another Botswanan named Peter Lucky was apprehended April 26 at the NAIA Centennial Terminal before he could board a Philippine Airlines flight to Vancouver.
"There is a pattern in the syndicate’s movements and the frequency is rising that it would not escape notice," Libanan said.
He said other areas in Southeast Asia are being used by the syndicate as transit points for illegal aliens to Canada and Europe.
Libanan said the BI will send advisories to the bureau’s counterpart in Malaysia and court for a possible cooperation to fight human smuggling.