BI officers foiled attempt to smuggle three Iranians disguised as Belgians

December 27, 2017

Bureau of Immigration (BI) officers at the  Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) have foiled another attempt by an international trafficking syndicate to smuggle a family of three Iranians disguised as Belgians.

In a report to Immigration Commissioner Jaime Morente Wednesday, BI port operations division chief Marc Red Mariñas said the Iranians were intercepted last Dec. 23 at the NAIA I terminal upon their arrival aboard a Thai Airways flight from Bangkok.

The Iranians, a woman and her two children, were excluded and booked on the first available flight to their port of origin.

Mariñas asked the names of the passengers not be divulged since two are children and they were victims of the syndicate that gave them bogus Belgian passports.

“As a result of this incident, we have instructed our immigration officers to be doubly strict in examining the travel papers of arriving foreigners, particularly Middle Eastern nationals who present European passports,” the BI official said. DMS