The Bureau of Immigration (BI) dealt a big blow to an international human trafficking syndicate with the arrest last Monday of a Singaporean woman who allegedly escorts foreigners using the Philippines as a transit point to gaining illegal entry into other countries.

Immigration Commissioner Marcelino Libanan, quoting the report of BI chief for airport operations Ferdinand Sampol, identified the suspected courier of the syndicate as Singaporean citizen Joana Lee May Lin.

Lin was arrested while escorting two human trafficking victims – Jeremy Lim Chee iong and Jimmy Ong Lai Heng, both natives of China – at Terminal 2 of the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA).

“This showed that our agency is capable of defeating any attempts by human trafficking syndicates to use the Philippines as their transit point in transporting illegal people,” Libanan said.

Sampol reported that the three were intercepted at the Terminal 2 before they could board a Philippine Airlines flight bound for Vancouver, Canada.

BI Associate Commissioner Enrique Galang, who presented the three foreigners in a news conference Wednesday, said Lim and Ong were apprehended for using fraudulent Singaporean passports.

`“They arrived in Manila using their original Chinese passports but upon arriving here the syndicate gave them the Singaporean passports which they would present in leaving the country and in gaining illegal entry to Canada,” Galang said.