BI deports 47 SoKor fugitives

FILE: BI Commissioner Jaime Morente (Photo: Bureau of Immigration)

MANILA — The Bureau of Immigration (BI) ordered a mass deportation, a first for the bureau, of 47 South Koreans wanted for different crimes in their homeland.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that 45 of the deportees were flown aboard a Jeju Air flight from the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) while the two others, who were arrested in Cebu, departed from Mactan last December 14.

They were turned over to South Korean police authorities by Philippine government officials headed by DOJ Secretary Vitaliano N. Aguirre II, upon their arrival at the Incheon international airport.

“All of them were expelled pursuant to deportation orders issued by our board of commissioners and they were all placed in our blacklist of undesirable aliens to prevent them from re-entering the Philippines,” Morente said in a statement.

BI spokesperson Ma. Antonette Mangrobang said most of the deportees are wanted in Korea for swindling and internet fraud, including voice phishing, while two of them are wanted for assault and physical injuries and one for illegal drugs.

They also included seven overstaying Koreans who voluntary requested that they be deported.

“All of them were arrested in separate operations by operatives from our fugitive search unit in various places throughout the country over the past several months,” Mangrobang said.

The foreigners were apprehended at the request of the Interpol and the South Korean embassy in Manila.

Morente added that the deportation was arranged in line with the BI’s efforts to decongest its detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa, Taguig City, saying that some of the deportees have been “overstaying” in their cells even if there were no more legal impediments to their deportation.

“We have secured the necessary clearances to make sure that they have no pending civil and criminal cases before our courts,” the BI chief said.

Also present during the turnover to Korean Police authorities were DOJ Undersecretaries Raymund L. Mecate and Erickson H. Balmes, and BI Deputy Commissioner J. Tobias Javier, legal division chief Arvin Santos, board secretary Jing Oliver Balina, port operations division chief Marc Red Marias, BI prosecutor Homer Arellano, deportation unit head Candy Tan, and intelligence officer Maynard Mariñas. (PNA)