The Bureau of Immigration (BI) warned of a scheme using children and family members to evade strict immigration inspection.
According to BI Travel Control and Enforcement Unit (TCEU) Chief Ma. Timotea Barizo, they recently came across an aspiring overseas worker who attempted to travel with the minor child of his sponsor and his wife.
“Upon secondary inspection, we noted numerous red flags and inconsistencies in his statements,” said Barizo. “He did not have proper documentation to prove his purpose, and we highly suspect that this is only a guise to be able to depart the country and work abroad,” she added.
Barizo then shared that they have already encountered many such attempts to cover up their true purpose of travel.
“Many times, these aspiring overseas workers are improperly documented, and some even have connecting flights to other countries that they don’t present during inspection,” she shared.
Meanwhile BI Commissioner Jaime Morente reminded aspiring overseas Filipino workers to ensure that they secure the proper documentation from the Philippine Overseas Employment Administration (POEA) before leaving the country.
“Legitimate OFWs get immediate assistance and protection from the government in case they encounter trouble in their countries of destination,” said Morente. “Those who leave illegally become vulnerable and are prone to abuse, hence we remind those who wish to seek employment abroad to always secure their jobs through legitimate means,” he added.
All BI airport workers now Covid-free
For a month now all of the more than 800 Bureau of Immigration (BI) personnel assigned in the different international airports nationwide are now free of the Covid-19 virus.
In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI port operations division (POD) chief Lawyer Carlos Capulong said that since Feb. 22 there has been no report of any personnel assigned at the airport who was infected by Covid-19.
Capulong said that as a result of the continued zero Covid-19 cases among BI officers at the frontlines, the bureau has been able to render better services to the traveling public.
He recalled that at the height of the Omicron surge last January, hundreds of immigration officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) contracted the virus, thus sharply depleting the number of BI personnel at the premiere port.
Capulong, however, reported that as the BI braced for the reopening of the country’s borders to foreign leisure travelers last Feb. 10, the number of Covid-infected BI personnel at the airports started to dwindle.
“Thanks to the high vaccination rate among our port personnel, we were able to beat the virus in time for the reopening,” he said.
Presently, Capulong said the BI is operating at full capacity at the airport amid the continuing increase in the number of international travelers that arrive and depart from the country daily.
“We are now posting an average volume of 9,000 to 10,000 arriving passengers daily. Before Feb. 10 the average was only around 5,000,” he added.
There are a total of 846 immigration officers and job order employees assigned at the BI-POD, 622 of whom are reporting for duty at the NAIA. The rest are assigned in the other ports such as Mactan, Clark and Davao.
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