2,700 foreigners barred

More than 2,700 foreigners who failed to justify their travel to the country were turned away during the first six months as part of the Bureau of Immigration’s (BI) drive against undesirable aliens.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said that 2,421 out of the 2,717 aliens who were barred from entering the country from January to June this year were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport.

The 296 others, meanwhile, were intercepted at the airports of Cebu, Davao, Clark, Iloilo, Kalibo, Laoag and Puerto Princesa, and the Zamboanga seaport in Zamboanga City.

Morente said the number of aliens denied entry during the first semester was 39 percent higher than the 1,948 aliens who were turned away in the same period last year.

“We shall continue to exercise utmost vigilance in screening arriving foreigners by seeing to it that they are properly documented and are not likely to become public charges while they are here,” the BI chief said in a statement.  —TINA G. SANTOS