By Jun Ramirez
Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have foiled an attempt by a human trafficking syndicate to smuggle two illegal aliens into the United Kingdom, using Manila as a jump-off point.
In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente, BI’s port operations division (POD) chief Marc Red Mariñas identified the passengers as Lin Chen Hui, 29, and Chen Huajuan, 27.
Mariñas said the two were intercepted Thursday at the NAIA 2 terminal by elements of the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit (TCEU) as they were about to board a Philippine Airlines flight to London.
“They earlier arrived as transit passengers from Dubai and were already at the boarding gate when the BI officers were alerted by airline personnel on their attempted departure,” Mariñas said.
He added that while the passengers presented Chinese passports in boarding their flight to Manila, they later took out their tampered Macau Special Administrative Region passports which they intended to use in gaining illegal entry to the UK.
“We have already alerted members of our border control and intelligence unit to be extra vigilant in monitoring arriving foreigners, especially transit passengers bound for other countries,” Mariñas added.
