AN official of the Catholic Bishops Conference of the Philippines (CBCP) yesterday said that foreign countries hosting the World Youth Day (WYD) celebrations have expressed concerns of Filipino delegates turning into “TNTs” or undocumented immigrants.
In an interview, CBCP – Episcopal Commission on Youth (ECY) Executive Secretary Fr. Ramon Jade Licuanan said the issue has caused host governments to refuse some Filipinos seeking to participate in the event for young people organized by the Catholic Church.
“There are visa refusals from the embassies. Their fear is that there would be TNTs (tago ng tago),” said Licuanan.
“We are on our last attempt to reconsider applications for visas of some 50 (applicants) that have been denied,” he added.
The priest acknowledged that the fear of the host governments is not unfounded, noting that “there have been several cases of pilgrims becoming TNTs.”
“This is the fruit of many cases of TNTs even long before, more than 10 years ago,” he said, noting that this is especially highlighted whenever the WYD is hosted by a European nation.
“There is a pattern that whenever the host is a European country, Madrid, Italy, Rome, France, there are many (of the pilgrims who end up as) TNTs,” said Licuanan.
The CBCP-ECY has earlier said that its delegation for the 37th World Youth Day is only composed of 270 individuals.
The World Youth Day 2023 is set to be held in Lisbon, Portugal from August 1 to 6, 2023 with Pope Francis set to lead the attendees.
