3 Vietnamese teens held for using German passports

MANILA, Philippines — Three Vietnamese minors were caught with German passports believed to have been illegally acquired as part of a human trafficking scheme, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) reported yesterday.

Two of the minors, girls aged 15 and 17, “were denied entry for presenting German passports whose owner had similar facial features and later turned out to be stolen,” according to the BI.

The girls, who arrived at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport from Ho Chi Minh City on July 22, “later admitted the German passports are not theirs and that these were only given to them by fixers who assured them they could easily travel if they used it instead of their Vietnamese passports,” the BI said.

Meanwhile, the bureau prevented a 17-year-old Vietnamese boy from leaving for Toronto, Canada via Incheon, South Korea on July 23.

The teen used a German passport “to gain illegal entry to Canada,” the BI said.

The boy told the BI he “illegally acquire(d) his passport from a website allegedly based in Europe that sells fraudulent travel documents.”

The two girls have been blacklisted and returned to their country. The boy is in the custody of the Department of Social Welfare and Development “while undergoing removal proceedings,” the bureau said.

BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco said the incidents “might be a case of trafficking of minors to illegally enter other countries.”

“This seems to be another scheme illegal migrants use to be able to secure work abroad,” he added.