BI deports 46 Chinese wanted for cyber crimes

FILE: In a statement Monday, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the foreigners were deported last Dec. 1 aboard a China Southern Airlines flight to Shenyang, China, there were escorted by police from China who came here to fetch them. (Photo: Bureau of Immigration)

MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has deported 46 Chinese fugitives, who were arrested last month in Makati City for involvement in cyber fraud.

In a statement Monday, BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said the foreigners were deported last Dec. 1 aboard a China Southern Airlines flight to Shenyang, China, there were escorted by police from China who came here to fetch them.

The Chinese nationals were among the 81 foreigners rounded up last Nov. 7 by members of the bureau’s fugitive search unit (FSU) in an operation conducted inside the Burgundy Towers along Gil Puyat Ave. where they had been illegally operating an online trading business.

He noted that BI agents were dispatched to the building to arrest four Chinese fugitives wanted for economic crimes but they accidentally stumbled upon the other aliens.

“We already placed them in our immigration blacklist to prevent them from re-entering the country,” he said in a statement.

The Chinese nationals were detained for three weeks at the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City before they were deported.

Arvin Cesar Santos, BI legal division chief, said that the BI board of commissioners issued a summary deportation order against the Chinese nationals last Nov. 17.

They were ordered expelled after the Chinese embassy informed the BI that those arrested were all fugitives wanted for cyber crimes in their homeland.

“The embassy also told us that their passports were already cancelled, thus they have become undocumented aliens subject to immediate deportation,” the BI official said.

Earlier, the deportees were charged by BI prosecutors with undesirability and for posing risk to public safety and security. (PNA)