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Thursday, March 28, 2024

BI barred 160 foreign sex offenders in 2019

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At least 160 foreign sex offenders were barred by the Bureau of Immigration from entering the country in 2019.

Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente said the number of registered sex offenders denied entry last year was slightly higher than the 145 aliens intercepted in 2018.

“RSOs encountered at the airports are immediately turned back and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin,” the BI chief said.

The country’s Immigration Act expressly mandates the exclusion of foreigners convicted of crimes involving moral turpitude.

RSO refers to a foreigner previously convicted of a sex crime in his country, who has finished serving his sentence or is out on parole or probation. 

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Many are pedophiles charged and found guilty of raping or sexually molesting minors.

In the United States and other Western countries, governments maintain a sex offender registry that allows authorities to trace activities and movements of RSOs.

Statistics show that 128 Americans topped the list of the excluded aliens, followed by 11 Britons, six Australians, four Chinese, and two New Zealanders.  

Also listed is a Cameroonian, a Canadian, a German, a Guatemalan, an Irish, a Korean, a Malaysian, a Russian, and a Taiwanese.

Morente vowed that the BI would continue to ban the entry of RSOs into the Philippines which, he said, would always be off-limits to sex predators “who pose a serious threat to the well-being of Filipino women and children.”

Morente said the BI continued to receive information from its foreign counterparts on RSOs who might possibly travel to the Philippines.

He said these aliens were immediately placed in the Immigration blacklist and barred from entering the country upon their arrival in any Philippine port of entry

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