Iranian caught with two passports at NAIA

An Iranian national posing as a Portuguese was arrested by Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) after the foreigner was found to have another passport hidden in his underwear.

Ferdie Sampol, head supervisor of the BI-NAIA, identified the Iranian as Hajy Hosseinbigi Hamidreza, with passport number C5754084.

The immigration bureau said the Iranian had initially presented a Portuguese passport (H759348) that identified him as Ricardo Fernando. The Iranian was arrested Sunday evening upon arrival from Singapore.

He was immediately taken to the immigration main office in Intramuros, Manila.

In a report to Sampol, BI personnel said that at the immigration counter, the Iranian presented his Portuguese passport, saying he would be flying to Bangkok on June 26.

However, immigration agents had doubts as to the purpose of his visit in Manila and tried to ask for his airline ticket from Singapore.

The Iranian said he had disposed of it while insisting he was a Portuguese tourist.

He, however, had no hotel reservation in Bangkok and only $300 as pocket money, which is quite uncommon for arriving tourists, immigration agents said in their report.

Immigration agents then asked the Iranian to go inside their office for further investigation.

There, immigration agents asked him to remove his clothes and later discovered that the Iranian had his Iranian passport hidden in his underwear.

The Iranian admitted that he took a flight from Iran to Singapore using his real name. He planned to use Manila as a transit point using the fake passport before he resumes his journey to Japan, which he claims was his final destination.

No details were provided as to the purpose of his trip.

The Iranian was turned over to the chief of the BI Intelligence Division at the main office for further investigation and disposition. The Iranian has been blacklisted by the BI.