Two foreign nationals are set to be deported by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) following their arrest for using fake travel documents, the bureau said Monday.
Summary deportation proceedings and re-entry ban have been filed against Frederick Buchester, a Liberian; and Ravinder Kumar, an Indian national.
According to the report received by BI Commissioner Jaime Morente, Buchester counterfeited a Liberian passport while Kumar presented a fraudulent visa.
Buchester was arrested on July as he attempted to leave the country going to Belgium. Kumar, on the hand, was intercepted by BI personnel on July 27 before his flight going to Canada.
Morente said that airport officials suspected that the two foreign nationals were assisted by syndicates “trying to use Manila as a transit point for smuggling illegal aliens to other countries.”
Morente then urged immigration officers to be “doubly strict” in screening passengers following the continuous arrests of foreigners using fake travel documents.
Both Buchester and Kumar are currently detained at the BI detention facility in Camp Bagong Diwa in Taguig City while waiting for their deportation order. With Daphne Beltran, INQUIRER.net intern/je