MANILA, Philippines — A Swede and his three companions were barred from entering the country after immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) found out that he is suspected of being a terrorist.
Bureau of Immigration (BI) Operations Division chief Grifton Medina said Thursday that the foreigners arrived at Naia’s Terminal 1 on February 5 from Singapore. The identities of the three foreigners were not disclosed by the BI.
“The passenger was immediately excluded after the immigration officer saw that his name registered a positive hit as a suspected international terrorist,” Medina said in a statement.
All of them were booked on the first available flight to their port of origin.
According to Medina, the database of BI is linked to that of the International Criminal Police Organization (Interpol), which also contains information about alleged involvement in terrorist activities of foreign nationals.
He explained that the BI is authorized to refuse entry to a foreigner suspected of having links or association to terror groups.
“He is just one of the thousands of international terrorists whose names were included in the shared database containing information supplied by the various law enforcement and intelligence agencies here and abroad,” Medina said.
Further, the BI official noted that the suspected terrorist and his three companions were all of Iraqi descent, and were from Iraq’s Kurdistan region where for decades its inhabitants have been fighting for an independent Kurdish state.