BI to personnel: Step up amid proliferation of foreign travelers using fake docs

Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente has ordered personnel stationed in all entry and exit ports nationwide to be on alert amid reports of foreign nationals using fraudulent travel documents going in and out of the country.

The BI chief said Monday that all personnel must “double their vigilance to put a stop to these individuals attempting to travel illegally” especially after the arrest of three more foreign nationals, who were found using fake travel documents.

“We are alarmed by what appears to be a proliferation in the use of fraudulent travel documents by foreigners who attempt to enter or exit our country,” Morente said.

According to Morente, Moustapha Harry Dicko, a Mali national; Gabriel Martinez Mendoza, a Mexican; and Joynul Islam, a Bangladeshi, were recently intercepted by immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Islam was arrested before his flight to Canada at NAIA Terminal 2 on August 1 after immigration officers found him using fake electronic travel authority.

Mendoza, on the other hand, was collared by immigration officers at NAIA Terminal 1 also last August 1 due to his altered passport.

Dicko, meanwhile, was apprehended ;asu August 2 at the NAIA Terminal 3 after BI personnel found that his passport was tampered with Mali passport.

“Let this latest string of apprehensions serve as a warning. Schemes like this will not pass,” Morente noted.

All three foreign nationals are being detained at the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City pending the issuance of deportation orders against them. /kga