BI raises alarm over use of ‘backdoor exit’ by ‘foreign fugitives’

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) has raised the alarm over the use of illegal migration corridor or “backdoor exit” in Tawi-Tawi by foreigners wanted in their countries for alleged crimes and those found as undesirable aliens in the Philippines.
BI Commissioner Joel Anthony Viado said the bureau’s intelligence division reported the arrest of two Chinese nationals identified as Li Yu, 27, and Liu Fei, 35, after they were accosted by Maritime Police Station of Tawi-Tawi last Friday, May 9.
The two foreigners were accosted and thereafter arrested during the regular foot patrol operation along the shorelines of Poblacion in Bongao, Tawi-Tawi, together with the 1st Special Operations Unit - Philippine National Police (PNP) Criminal Investigation Detection Group (CIDG) Provincial Field Unit, Marines Battalion Landing Team 4, 2nd MCIC and Municipal Inter-Agency Committee Against Trafficking (MIACAT) Bongao.
The BI said that during the monitoring, the team found the two Chinese men on board a ship which arrived from Zamboanga City. They identified themselves using photos in their passports and said that they live in Parañaque City.
However, the BI said that when the monitoring team coordinated with BI operatives to verify their identities, they found that the names of the two foreigners appeared in the BI’s blacklist after they have been tagged in 2023 as undocumented and undesirable aliens for working for an establishment involved in prostitution and labor exploitation.
Also, the BI said the two Chinese nationals have been tagged by the Chinese government as “fugitives” as they face cases in China for financial fraud.
It also said that both Li and Liu travelled to Zamboanga then to Tawi-Tawi, where they intended to board a boat to Sabah.
With their arrest, they will be transported to Taguig City where they will be detained pending their deportation, it added.