128 foreign fugitives hiding in the country arrested in 2023 - BI

The Bureau of Immigration announced Sunday that it arrested 128 foreign fugitives hiding in the country in 2023.  

Most of the fugitives were South Koreans with 39. The other nationalities were 25 Chinese, 15 Vietnamese, 12 were Taiwanese, 11 Americans and 8 Japanese.

“Our country is off limits to these foreign fugitives. They are not welcome here and there will be no letup in our campaign to hunt and deport them so they could be tried for the criminal cases that were filed against them,” BI commissioner Norman Tansingco said.

The agency’s Fugitive Search Unit (FSU) made the arrests in multiple operations conducted nationwide in coordination with foreign law enforcement counterparts.

Most of those captured have already been deported and charged with penalties appropriate to their committed crimes,

Offenses committed by the fugitives include involvement in economic crimes, investment scams, illegal gambling, money laundering, telecommunications fraud, robbery, and smuggling.

A notable arrest was that of Manpreet Singh and his cohorts last March, who were tagged as members of an extremist group known as the Khalistan Tiger Force in India.

Also caught in 2023 were Risa Yamada, Fujita Kairi, and Sato Shohei who were located in January, March, and April for their affiliation with the infamous ‘Luffy’ syndicate.

The BI said all arrested fugitives have since been placed in the immigration blacklist of undesirable aliens and are perpetually barred from re-entry in the Philippines. —Jiselle Anne Casucian/RF, GMA Integrated News