Philippine Immigration

THE Bureau of Immigration recently formed the Zamboanga deportation task force to address the growing number of Filipino deportees coming to the city from Sabah, Malaysia.

The creation of the task force was BI Commissioner Marcelino C. Libanan’s response to Zamboanga City Mayor Celso Lobregat’s calls asking for more immigration officers to process the Filipino deportees. Reports said that on average, 500 exiles are brought to Zamboanga City every week, on board the commercial vessel M/V Danica Joy 2. On Wednesday alone, 269 illegal Filipino immigrants arrived in Barangay Talon-talon.

“Our job here is to assess their travel documents to determine their true citizenship, because they have been claiming that they were staying in Malaysia for a long period of time,” explained BI Bay Service Section Chief and concurrent taskforce head Jose Carandang Jr., who arrived to Zamboanga City on Wednesday.

The agency is yet to verify Malaysia’s regulations regarding citizenship. Carandang added that a Filipino Consul based in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia is the one in charge in signing the travel documents of the deportees before embarking on a Philippine-bound vessel.

“The number of deportees is dependent on how many documents the Filipino Consul in Malaysia processed,” said the BI top official. “We are hoping that the Consul will be able to process more deportees soon.”

Carandang said the task force was also created to make it more convenient to the Filipino deportees.

“They went through tough times while working in Malaysia, so we want to make it easier for them when they arrive here in the Philippines,” Carandang explained. “Soon, we will increase and strengthen the agency’s manpower, and add more laptops in the immigration offices in Zamboanga to fast track the processing of their travel documents.” (BI News)