The Bureau of Immigration (BI) barred more than 3,000 foreign nationals from entering the country last year.

BI Commissioner Jaime Morente said a total of 3,044 aliens were refused entry in 2020, lower than the more than 7,700 foreigners who were turned away the previous year..

“As expected, there were fewer aliens excluded last year considering that passenger arrivals during that period dropped by a whopping 74 percent, mainly due to international travel restrictions imposed after the COVID-19 pandemic outbreak,” Morente said.

He, however, stressed that despite the pandemic, BI officers at the ports continued to be vigilant in screening arriving aliens to make sure that only those eligible visitors were accommodated.

The BI chief noted that the agency turned away large numbers of aliens from January to March 2020 or before the government enforced a lockdown which led to the suspension of many international flights and closure of the country’s borders to foreign travelers.

Lawyer Candy Tan, BI port operations chief, disclosed that 1,350 Koreans topped the list of the excluded aliens, followed by 532 Chinese nationals, 333 Vietnamese, 247 Americans, 181 Indonesians, and 180 Malaysians.

Tan said 53 percent of the passengers were turned back for being likely to become public charge, while 16 percent were disallowed entry for being improperly documented.

Tan also bared that 112 aliens were also turned away for being in the immigration blacklist of undesirable aliens while there were also 29 passengers who were sent back for having been previously deported from the Philippines for violating immigration laws.

There were 18 foreign passengers who were denied entry for being rude, unruly and discourteous towards immigration officers.