7 foreigners arrested for human smuggling

Immigration officials arrested on Monday six Chinese and a French national, who tried to smuggle Chinese nationals to the United States through the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo said Jacques Wei, a French citizen; and Wang Xiao Lingzi, a Chinese national, were arrested while trying to board a Philippine Airlines flight to Hong Kong.

Arrested with them were five Chinese, identified as Chen Zhiqin, Lin Wu, Taihai Ouyang, Lin Konggan and Chen Zhi Yan.

All seven are now detained at the immigration jail in Bicutan pending deportation.

Domingo said the aliens were intercepted before reaching the airline counters at the airport hours after the US Embassy alerted her office about their scheduled departure for the US via Hong Kong.

US immigration authorities earlier intercepted three Chinese nationals in Miami, Florida, as they tried to enter the country with fake visas.

Officials of the US Department of Homeland Security were told by the detainees about the scheduled arrival of a second batch of Chinese nationals from Manila and Hong Kong, Domingo said.

Travel records of the seven foreigners arrested at the NAIA showed that they arrived in the country on Nov. 4.

Immigration officials suspect the five Chinese nationals were to be given their fake US visas and plane tickets in Hong Kong before proceeding to the US.

US and Philippine authorities were able to establish that the trip of those arrested in the US and Manila were facilitated by only one syndicate that attempted to smuggle the illegal aliens to America in two batches.

NAIA immigration authorities said they have over the past two years thwarted several attempts by human trafficking syndicate to use Manila as a transit point. This resulted in the arrest and deportation of over a hundred would-be smuggled aliens.

Those arrested were mostly Chinese nationals and Iranians, whose intended destinations include not only the US, but also Canada, Australia, Japan, Korea and European countries. – With AFP, AP