THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) ordered two Sri Lankan nationals to leave the country and be placed under BI’s blacklist after being arrested for possession of spurious travel documents.
Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan identified the foreigners as Balagobal Kannataasan and Harisan Amirtham, believed to be victims of human trafficking syndicates, traveling with falsified Malaysian passports.
The Sri Lankans were about to board Qantas flight for Sydney, Australia when offloaded for using fraudulently altered Malaysian passport in trying to leave the country. They are both detained at the Bicutan Immigration Jail pending deportation proceedings.
At the same time, Libanan lauded immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (Naia) for thwarting another human trafficking operation perpetrated by an international syndicate.
Upon checking of the foreigners' passports, Naia immigration personnel found out that it contained immigration arrival stamps showing that they arrived at Naia last April 13 but it turned out to be spurious.
“A check of the BI’s computerized travel database bared that the Sri Lankans did not arrive on the said date and that their names are not in the manifest of the Malaysian Airlines flight that purportedly brought them to the Philippines,” he added.
BI investigators suspected that the duo used their original Sri Lankan passports when they arrived and that they could have obtained the spurious Malaysian passports here from members of the syndicate that facilitated their trip. (FP/Sunnex)
