2 Iranians banned from entering RP over human trafficking
The Bureau of Immigration has banned two Iranian men from entering the Philippines in connection with the attempted human trafficking incident at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) over the weekend.
Ordered placed under the BI blacklist of undesirable aliens by Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan were Reyzan Aslanyfaal, 23; and Afshin Zohrabnia, 25.
A statement from the Immigration Bureau said that last Saturday Aslanyfaal and Zohrabnia were caught by operatives of the BI’s Migration Compliance and Monitoring Group (MCMG) in possession of fake Israeli passports while attempting to leave for Palau.
The two had just arrived as transit passengers aboard a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok and were checking-in for their Palau flight at the Continental Airlines counter when accosted by immigration officers.
They were immediately issued exclusion orders and sent back on a return flight to Bangkok.
The incident prompted Libanan to order a strict monitoring and profiling of foreigners arriving as transit passengers at the NAIA to thwart future attempts by human trafficking syndicates to use Manila as a transit point for smuggling illegal aliens to other countries.
At the same time, Libanan also appealed to employees of various airlines operating at the NAIA to immediately refer to the MCMG any passenger suspected of using spurious travel documents.
Clodualdo Peñera, MCMG head supervisor, said alert staff of the Continental Airlines tipped his men about the forged Israeli passports and plane tickets that the Iranians presented in checking-in for their Palau flight.
The passengers were then invited for questioning. Not long after, immigration officers discovered that the names on their Israeli passports were not included in the airline manifest.
"They did not even acknowledge our greetings of ‘Shalom, Shalom’ during the interview which reinforced our suspicion that they are actually impostors and not Israelis," Peñera said.
He added that the Iranians yielded their original passports hidden inside their shoes when authorities pressed on their true identities.
Both were said to have admitted admitted that they were going to Koror, Palau to find jobs and later on, to seek asylum in the United States.
Ordered placed under the BI blacklist of undesirable aliens by Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan were Reyzan Aslanyfaal, 23; and Afshin Zohrabnia, 25.
A statement from the Immigration Bureau said that last Saturday Aslanyfaal and Zohrabnia were caught by operatives of the BI’s Migration Compliance and Monitoring Group (MCMG) in possession of fake Israeli passports while attempting to leave for Palau.
The two had just arrived as transit passengers aboard a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok and were checking-in for their Palau flight at the Continental Airlines counter when accosted by immigration officers.
They were immediately issued exclusion orders and sent back on a return flight to Bangkok.
The incident prompted Libanan to order a strict monitoring and profiling of foreigners arriving as transit passengers at the NAIA to thwart future attempts by human trafficking syndicates to use Manila as a transit point for smuggling illegal aliens to other countries.
At the same time, Libanan also appealed to employees of various airlines operating at the NAIA to immediately refer to the MCMG any passenger suspected of using spurious travel documents.
Clodualdo Peñera, MCMG head supervisor, said alert staff of the Continental Airlines tipped his men about the forged Israeli passports and plane tickets that the Iranians presented in checking-in for their Palau flight.
The passengers were then invited for questioning. Not long after, immigration officers discovered that the names on their Israeli passports were not included in the airline manifest.
"They did not even acknowledge our greetings of ‘Shalom, Shalom’ during the interview which reinforced our suspicion that they are actually impostors and not Israelis," Peñera said.
He added that the Iranians yielded their original passports hidden inside their shoes when authorities pressed on their true identities.
Both were said to have admitted admitted that they were going to Koror, Palau to find jobs and later on, to seek asylum in the United States.
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