Indian nabbed for human smuggling

An Indian national, suspected as the leader of a syndicate involved in the smuggling of undocumented Indians into the country on board fishing vessels that dock in Negros and nearby provinces, has already been arrested in Bacolod City, Immigration Commissioner Andrea Domingo reported yesterday.

Domingo identified the alleged syndicate leader as Balit Singh who, together with an Indian woman, were pinpointed by informants as operators of a group that smuggles undocumented Indian nationals into Bacolod, Negros and other areas of Western Visayas.

The smuggled Indians have reportedly spread out throughout the region where they are now engaged in the money lending racket called "5-6" that prey on local residents, Domingo said.

Domingo said that Singh’s father, Sukhdev Singh Gill, was in India at the time the raid was conducted in Balbina St., Sta. Clara, Executive Village, Mandalagan, Bacolod City.

The immigration chief said that although Singh was found to be a holder of a permanent visa under the Alien Social Integration Act, he was arrested for trying to hide Davider Kaur, the Indian woman who was in his house when the arresting immigration agents arrived.

Singh, according to the arresting immigration agents, tried to hide the woman from them because the latter was an undocumented alien who was found in possession of spurious immigration documents.

Singh has been charged with a deportation case for harboring an illegal alien while Kaur will be deported for using an assumed name to evade requirements of immigration law and being an undocumented alien.

They will be blacklisted and barred from re-entering the Philippines after they are deported, Domingo said. – Rey Arquiza