The Bureau of Immigration will deport at least 78 Vietnamese people after the agency vowed to crack down on overstaying foreigners within the country.
The Vietnamese surrendered to the agency last week and will be deported after processing their indigency claims. The deportation orders cannot come before their claims of being poor are processed and considered factual.
BI spokesperson Tonette Mangrobang said the large number of Vietnamese surrendered with the assistance of the Vietnamese Embassy in Manila.
The Embassy told BI officials that some of the 78 foreigners who surrendered have been in the country illegally from one to two years – those numbers were especially high in the Metro Manila area.
Mangrobang told reporters: “Some of them were in the buy and sell business. Some were employed as household help. I was surprised some of them were household help.”
Mangrobang also said “It was after he declared that we are strengthening our target hardening, going after aliens illegally staying in the country [did they surrender].”
Those who will fall under the indigency claims will have their immigration payments temporarily waived – however, those people who also file under that system will be able to return only after a formal hearing and full payment of the arrears (often referred to as ‘brownlisted’).
Mangrobang gave a final warning by saying “We would like to encourage other overstaying foreigners to come forward since they won’t be jailed if they turn themselves into us.”