Immigration authorities held an African who tried to leave the Ninoy Aquino International Airport using a fake Canadian visa.
The foreigner, identified as Abdul Wahab Issah of Ghana, attempted to board Philippine Airlines flight to Toronto, Canada when immigration officers noticed that his passport was fake.
BI Port Operations Division Chief Grifton Medina said Issah admitted that he bought the passport for $6,000 USD from a visa fraud syndicate in his country.
“Due to his apprehension, we were able to foil another attempt to use Manila as a jump-off point for smuggling illegal aliens to Canada,” Medina said.
Issah is currently detained at the BI detention facility while undergoing deportation proceedings.
Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente has instructed immigration officers in all ports nationwide to increase their vigilance in monitoring foreign travelers to ensure that syndicates will be unable to take advantage of the coming holidays to smuggle illegal aliens in and out of the country.
Meanwhile, Medina announced that as part of the bureau’s efforts to combat corruption, the BI recently reshuffled some 200 members of the Travel Control and Enforcement Unit at the NAIA and other international airports throughout the country.
The TCEU is a special team of immigration officers whose task is to conduct secondary inspection of arriving and departing international passengers.
This includes arriving foreigners who have doubtful purpose in entering the country and departing Filipino tourists who may be victimized by human traffickers and illegal recruiters.
Medina said the reshuffle was one of the numerous changes he plans to implement to prevent fraternization, which has been pinpointed as a major source of corruption in government agencies.