THE Bureau of Immigration yesterday committed to boost its intelligence gathering efforts and deploy more officers to track illegal aliens who have gone hiding in the provinces.
At the same time, Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said five fugitives are scheduled to be deported to stand trial for various crimes in their respective homelands.
Tansingco said the foreigners — four Indians and a Taiwanese — were
arrested in two separate operations conducted by operatives from the bureau’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU).
“These wanted foreigners will be expelled for being undesirable aliens, and also for being undocumented as their passports were already cancelled by their respective governments,” he said.
Tansingco said the foreigners will be blacklisted from re-entering the country.
Tansingco said the BI has “expanded the scope of the helpline to accommodate anonymous reports from the public about illegal aliens that might be hiding in their areas.”
The immigration bureau relaunched its helpline 02-8465-2400 or email address immigration.helpline.ph@gmail.com as part of its effort to track down undocumented and overstaying foreigners.
The agency said the hotline is now accepting reports and information from anonymous individuals.
Tansingco said his office has received numerous reports on some illegal aliens hiding in “far-flung” areas of the country to evade deportation.
“We see that social media is a powerful tool and it can be used to receive valuable information that might help us rid the country of foreign nationals abusing our hospitality,” the BI chief said.
Meanwhile, BI-FSU acting chief Rendel Ryan Sy said three of the Indians- Manpreet Singh, Amritpal Singh and Arshdeep Singh — were arrested on March 7 in Iloilo City.
The three Indian fugitives are subject of warrants of arrest for charges of murder and violation of the Explosive Substances Act 2001 and Unlawful Activities Prevention Act 1967 of India.
Sy said that during the operation, the arresting team chanced upon another Indian national, Amrikh Singh, who was also arrested for failure to present any travel document and is suspected of being an illegal entrant.
“They are also being investigated by the government in New Delhi for their alleged ties to an extremist group known as the Khalistan Tiger Force,” Sy said.
On the same day, BI-FSU operatives also apprehended in Boracay, Aklan a Taiwanese national named Lee He Zhan who is wanted in Taipei for involvement in the illegal drugs trade.
A warrant of arrest was issued against Lee by the district prosecutor’s office in Diaotou, Taiwan where he was charged for violating Taiwan’s Narcotics Hazard Prevention Act.
The five are now detained at the BI’s Warden Facility in Bicutan, Taguig while the agency is processing their deportation papers.
Last year, the BI reported 1,339 foreigners were deported BI, with Chinese nationals topping the list with 1,104, followed by South Koreans with 87 deportees and Vietnamese with 39, Americans with 19 and Nigerians with 12.
Majority of the deportees were found to have violated immigration laws, including overstaying their visas, violating the conditions of their stay, and being undesirable aliens.
