MORE than 400 foreign nationals were excluded by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) n the past month alone, for various kinds of violation of the immigration regulations.
It was learned from BI immigration protection and border enforcement section (I-PROBES) head Bienvenido Castillo III that from March to April, the bureau excluded a total of 401 foreign nationals for various immigration violations, broken down as follows: 254 Vietnamese; 76 Chinese; 19 Indonesians; 17 Burmese; eight Moroccans and four Ghanians.
Castillo said that excluded aliens board the next available flight back to their port of origin and that those denied entry for being likely to become a public charge are included in the BI’s blacklist, barring future attempts to enter the country.
BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said that the rise in exclusions are a result of intelligence information that many of the said aliens are working for illegal online gaming hubs in the country.
“We look at patterns of previous arrests, as well as travel histories of other intercepted aliens,” said Tansingco. “We use this pattern to intercept other potential violators, as well as those holding spurious documents,” he added.
Tansingco said majority of the said aliens were excluded after they were found likely to become a public charge for being improperly documented or have doubtful purpose of stay in the country.
The BI chief clarified that the bureau is not targeting specific nationalities, but rely on trends and data analysis.
“These illegal hubs are usually operated by syndicates that recruit foreign nationals, enticing them to work without proper documentation. We’ve seen that in many of our arrests both on the ground and at the airports,” he stressed.
