BI nabs alleged human  traffickers at NAIA

Members of the Migrant Compliance and Monitoring Group from the Bureau of Immigration at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport have netted five major apprehensions against foreign-based human trafficking and passport syndicates using Manila as the jump-point area since last week.

Clodualdo Penera, head of MCMG, said two alleged Malaysian nationals identified as Harisan Armitham and Balagotal Kannataasan were caught by members of the MCMG holding fraudulent Malaysian passports as they were about to leave for Sydney, Australia on board Qantas Airlines Sunday upon presenting their passports to immigration inspectors at the departure area.

Penera said after a thorough examination of their passports by the BI anti-fraud unit, it was found out that they even faked immigration stamps indicating they arrived on April 13, but their names did not appear in the passengers arrival manifest.

During an investigation, Armitham and Kannataasan admitted they did not have any Malaysian national identification card and also they could not even answer with a certainty of their port of origin.

Based on these findings, Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan ordered their commitment to Bicutan Immigration jail in Taguig City.

Additionally, two citizens of Botswana were apprehended in two separate incidents. Peter Lucky presented himself as a Botswana national, resident of Malaysia with a student visa and a student ID issued by the International Islamic University in Malaysia and identification card issued by Botswana while about to leave for Vancouver, Canada when MCMG and immigration inspectors noticed that the passport of Lucky was mutilated.

In his passport, his arrival in the country was dated April 25, 2008 and took Malaysian Airlines flight MH 704 however, verification from the BI computer database showed no records of subject’s entry on April 25, 2008 and his admission is questionable and hereby challenged.

Richard Okoh Uche another Botswana was also intercepted at the departure area bound for Vancouver, Canada. His passport has signs of alterations.

MCMG believed there is a connection between the travels of both Botswanian Uche and Lucky using altered passports as they were deported back to their point of origin and their names were placed on blacklist.

A Sri Lankan by the name of Thirunavukkarasu Gnanamthan, who arrived on April 22 via Air Asia at the Diosdado Macapagal International Airport (DMIA), Clark Pampanga was deported to his port of origin after investigation conducted by the members of the MCMG showed that he presented a counterfeit Singaporean passport during admission to the country.   – Rudy Santos