THE Bureau of Immigration (BI) has deported a total of 603 illegal aliens in 2012 as the agency continued to step up its campaign against foreigners who are fugitives from justice or engaged in organized crimes.
Immigration Commissioner Ricardo David Jr. disclosed that the number of aliens deported this year increased by almost three-fold compared to the 147 foreigners expelled last year.
They were among the 655 foreigners arrested by immigration intelligence operatives in various operations conducted throughout the country, David said.
The immigration added that all of the deportees were blacklisted and banned from re-entering the country for violating Philippine immigration laws.
David attributed the surge in the number of expelled foreigners to the resolute and expeditious resolution of deportation cases by the BI board of commissioners and the bureau’s law and investigation division (LID).
The BI chief said deportation cases are swiftly resolved to facilitate the immediate deportation of alien detainees and thus prevent congestion at the bureau’s detention facility.
Statistics show that 379 Taiwanese and 124 Chinese nationals nabbed for cybercrimes topped the list of the 2012 deportees, followed by 32 Americans, 17 Indians, and 12 Koreans.
Also deported were six Japanese, five Germans, three Britons, three Nigerians, two Bangladeshis, two Somalians, two Lebanese, 2 Swiss, two Irish, a Singaporean, an Australian, a New Zealander, a Pakistani, a Slovenian, a Guinean, a Liberian, a Malaysian, a Gambian, a Sri Lankan, an Iranian, and a Cameroon national.