THE Bureau of Immigration deployed additional personnel in Mindanao to prevent backdoor departures by human trafficking and illegal recruitment victims.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the move is part of the bureau’s program to strengthen border security, better public service and catching foreigners involved in illegal drugs and crimes.
Only recently, the BI intercepted several undocumented Filipino workers who returned and admitted that they left the country via the southern backdoor.
Several personnel were placed under investigation as the victims recounted how they left with the help of syndicates and the immigration officers who stamped their passports.
“The recent apprehension of 177 Indonesians with Philippine passports while attempting to leave for the Hajj pilgrimage in Saudi Arabia was also cited as a major breakthrough in the BI’s efforts to tighten border security,” Morente said.
Morente also said that heightened operations against foreign drug suspects will be conducted in support of President Duterte’s all-out war against illegal drugs.
It was learned that the BI has already filed immigration charges against several foreigners, mostly Chinese and Taiwanese, who were arrested in raids on shabu laboratories and in buy bust operations by the police.