Manila insists crackdown on foreign labourers doesn't target Chinese

Manila insists Chinese aren't being targeted in new whistle-blower programme offering rewards to those who turn in illegal workers

PUBLISHED : Friday, 12 September, 2014, 4:07am
UPDATED : Friday, 12 September, 2014, 4:07am
Raissa Robles in Manila



Workers unload imported rice at a port in Manila. Photo: Reuters


Philippine immigration authorities are rolling out a new whistle-blower programme to crack down on illegal foreign workers, but have denied that the scheme specifically targets Chinese or is linked to an ongoing diplomatic rift with Beijing.

The initiative, details of which are expected in two weeks, calls on people to turn in those they suspect of overstaying their visas.


"We would be practically deputising everyone to be our informant," Immigration Commissioner Siegfred Mison said on Wednesday. "If you know of someone who is an overstaying person you tell us. And if we validate, you get a reward," he said. He did not say how much whistle-blowers would be paid.


Although around half of all illegal aliens arrested by the Bureau of Immigration and Deportation this year have been Chinese nationals, Mison said authorities were not targeting Chinese and the effort had nothing to do with the territorial dispute in the South China Sea between Manila and Beijing.


Mison said the scheme was "our regular course of making sure that foreigners in our country would comply with immigration laws".


"As it happened, they all came from one country," Mison said. But the bureau's arrests have "nothing against a particular country, nationality. We're making sure all of our guests in our country comply with immigration laws," he said.


In the first quarter this year, 42 of the 168 foreigners detained in the bureau's holding facility were deported, including 24 from mainland China, seven from the US, and three each from Japan, South Korea and India.


But the number of detainees swelled again when on August 28, immigration agents raided the construction site of a power facility in Batangas province, south of Manila, following a tip that some 600 Chinese nationals were illegally working there. Mison said agents questioned just 81, because the rest ran away.


Investigations are ongoing but some of those questioned were found to be working legally and were highly technical skilled. They were freed and allowed to go back to work.


Others opted to leave the country, Mison said.


"We do not allow visitors who will come to this country for manual labour" such as carpenters, store clerks or plumbers, Mison said. But those with technical expertise can get work visas.


He described the bureau's relationship with the Chinese embassy in Manila as "healthy" and said "generally they are very co-operative".

He added: "Of course, we do not say to any embassy whether there will be an operation or not. But the moment they find out they immediately liaise with us."

The Bureau of Immigration and Deportation estimates there are some 1.5 million foreigners in the Philippines, although only 200,000 are registered. Of those, more than 20,000 are fugitives from the law.

In January, the bureau began a programme to flush out overstaying
aliens. They were offered the opportunity to leave without further punishment, provided they surrender and pay back all immigration fees.


One Japanese national paid 1.5 million pesos worth of back fees for 74 years of illegal stay.


Mison conceded that the bureau has been notorious for corruption but he said it was trying to change this culture by requiring all applicants, including those recommended by politicians, to take an exam.


This article appeared in the South China Morning Post print edition as Crackdown on foreign labour

http://www.scmp.com/news/asia/articl...target-chinese