Bureau of Immigration apprehends 50 Dubai-bound Pinoys over wrong visas

Immigration officers prevented a total of 50 Filipino workers on different flights bound for the United Arab Emirates from leaving the country after they presented only visit visas at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Ferdinand Sampol, who supervises immigration officers at NAIA, told The STAR the passengers “admitted that they are going (to Dubai) to work. But what they had were only visit visas.”

Sampol said they offloaded the Filipinos from different Dubai-bound flights starting Friday morning up to yesterday afternoon despite a letter from a consul in the Philippine embassy in the UAE guaranteeing the conversion of the visit visas into work visas.

He said they dismissed the guarantee since the Department of Foreign Affairs issued an order against the irregular deployment of Filipinos abroad.

Sampol also said the Philippine Overseas Employment Agency requires Filipino workers without work visas to secure a POEA clearance before they can go abroad.

Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan said he ordered the tight monitoring of Dubai-bound Filipinos since Dubai has become a transshipment point for workers wanting to go to Lebanon or Iraq, which are covered by a deployment ban.

Libanan also ordered that 18 Chinese nationals who arrived at NAIA yesterday bearing tourist visas be sent back to Macau after immigration officers found out that they would be working as construction workers at the Cagayan Economic Zone area.

He said some firms, particularly in the construction industry, prefer to hire Chinese laborers because they can be paid lower rates compared to Filipino workers. – Rainier Allan Ronda, Rudy Santos