Aguirre orders NBI, BI to go after human traffickers

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II. INQUIRER FILE PHOTO

Justice Secretary Vitaliano Aguirre II on Wednesday ordered the National Bureau of Investigation (NBI) to work closely with the Bureau of Immigration (BI) to identify and prosecute the people behind a human trafficking syndicate.

Aguirre issued the order after the BI intercepted five foreign nationals allegedly involved in human smuggling attempts, either as victims themselves or as perpetrators from Nov. 25, 2017 to Dec. 4, 2017.

Intercepted by Immigration personnel include Somalian national, Mohamoud Aden Abdinah, Chinese nationals Chen Hul Lin, Hua Juan Chen  and an Iranian national Shehni Dashtegoli Reza.

All the subjects were bound for England during the Asean summit.

Aguirre said the human traffickers conducted their activity at the time when the airports are busy with the influx of foreign guests.

“Apparently, the efforts to smuggle these individuals manifest organized criminal efforts to use fake travel documents and should be looked into further,” Aguirre said. /jpv