ShareThisMANILA— The Bureau of Immigration (BI) arrested and deported a total of 15 foreign fugitives, 11 of them Americans, from July to December 2010 as the agency stepped up its campaign against aliens wanted for various crimes in their homelands.
The figure was almost double the number of deportations of fugitives in the first half of the year which stood at eight.
Immigration officer-in-charge Ronaldo Ledesma, who was appointed to his post in July by Justice Secretary Leila de Lima, said the fugitives are now either undergoing trial or serving their sentences in their countries of origin after being expelled from the Philippines.
The wanted foreigners were arrested by the BI-Interpol unit after hiding in the country for years to evade prosecution, Ledesma said.
They were placed in the blacklist of undesirable aliens and banned from re-entering the country.