| BI thwarts human smuggle try at NAIA |
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| Mar 04, 2010 at 04:11 PM | |
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Immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have foiled an attempt by an international human trafficking syndicate to smuggle illegal aliens to Canada using Manila as a transit point. In a report to Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, BI airport operations division chief Ferdinand Sampol said the human trafficking operation was thwarted last Monday with the apprehension of the syndicate’s courier and two of its victims at NAIA. Libanan said the interception of the victims and the arrest of their courier were the result of proper trainings and use of modem technology. “This showed that our agency is capable of defeating any attempts by human trafficking syndicates to use the Philippines as their transit point in transporting illegal people,” Libanan added. Sampol identified the suspected courier of the syndicate as Joana Lee May Lin, a Singaporean, and her companions as Jeremy Lim Chee Siong and Jimmy Ong Lai Heng, both Chinese. Sampol reported that all three passengers were intercepted at the NAIA Terminal 2 before they could board a Philippine Airlines flight bound for Vancouver, Canada last Monday. BI associate commissioner Enrique Galang, who presented the three aliens at a news conference yesterday, said Lim and Ong were apprehended for using fraudulent Singaporean passports in leaving the country. “They arrived in Manila using their original Chinese passports but upon arriving here the syndicates gave them the Singaporean passports which they would present in leaving the country and in gaining illegal entry to Canada,” Galang said. Galang added the Chinese were enticed by the syndicate to make the trip as they intended to work in Canada. He said the three foreigners were accosted by members of the BI-Monitoring Compliance and Migration Group at the airport after they became suspicious of Lee who always acted as interpreter for her companions. Under questioning, Lim and Ong, who hail from Fujian, China, admitted they each paid the syndicate $20,000 and $30,000, respectively, for facilitating their aborted trip to Canada. Their Singaporean passports later turned out to be spurious after these were examined and found to be tampered by members of the BI anti-fraud division. They said while in China, the syndicate members had briefed them on their trip’s itinerary in going first to Manila before taking their flight to Canada. --Conrado Ching, Daily Tribune |
