African arrested at Manila airport trying to reach Germany on fake passport

African
The African woman is now being held at the Bureau of Immigration’s detention centre in Bicutan.

An African woman has been arrested at Manila airport for attempting to reach Germany using a fake Guatemalan passport. 

Immigration Officers at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) intercepted the Cameroonian who was attempting to pass herself off as a Central American called Desiree Dalila Sanchez.

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In a report to Bureau of Immigration (BI) Commissioner Jaime Morente today (Tuesday, November 27), BI Port Operations chief Grifton Medina said the woman was arrested last week at the departure area of the NAIA.

Mr Medina said the woman was about to board a China Airlines flight to Frankfurt when she was intercepted by members of the BI’s travel control and enforcement unit.

“The officer inspecting her documents noticed irregularities on her passport and our forensic document examiners were able to confirm that the passport was fake,” he said.

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According to Mr Medina, the arrest just the latest interception of illegal aliens attempting to use Manila as a transit point to reach first world countries.

In August, for example, we reported how a Mexican, a Bangladeshi and a man from Mali were arrested within days of each for attempting to reach Canada using bogus documents.

Today, Mr Medina emphasised that such schemes cannot succeed as the BI has skilled officers and modern equipment that can detect fraudulent documents within seconds.

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He also said that the Cameroonian woman is now detained at the BI detention facility in Bicutan, Taguig, pending her prosecution for violating the country’s immigration laws.

According to customs officers, the woman presented a doubtful-looking Guatemalan passport with a clearly counterfeited biographical page.

After insisting that she was a Guatemalan citizen, she later confessed that both her parents were from the central African country of Cameroon.

Commissioner Morente has reminded all airport immigration officers to be doubly vigilant during the peak season to ensure that aliens who attempt to use bogus travel documents are caught and brought to justice.

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