The Bureau of Immigration (BI) continued to serve as the country’s gatekeepers as it prevented 668 undesirable foreigners from entering the Philippines during the first semester of this year, BI Commissioner Nonoy Libanan said on Thursday.

He vowed vigilance to keep the country safe from foreign criminal elements.

“We cannot afford to relax our guard especially in these times when terrorists, criminals and human traffickers roam the world to strike fear and victimize the citizens of many countries and societies,” Libanan said.

The BI chief said he is pleased that the bureau’s immigration officers are doing a good job of turning away undesirable aliens at the ports of entry.

“Undoubtedly, the vigilance of our immigration officers helps keep our country safe because they have turned back foreigners whose presence here could have posed a potential threat to our security and caused burden to our society,” the immigration chief said.

In his report to Libanan, BI Immigration Regulation Division (IRD) chief Gary Mendoza said the bulk of the excluded aliens were intercepted at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) while the rest were barred in other ports such as those in Cebu, Clark, and Davao.

A breakdown of the aliens excluded from January to July showed that 76 Koreans topped the list, followed by 39 Japanese, 28 Indians, 27 Americans, 21 Taiwanese, 11 Singaporeans, nine Malaysians, nine Britons, and eight Australians.

As standard operating procedure, aliens barred at the airports are immediately placed in the BI blacklist to prevent them from returning to the country.

Mendoza said most of the excluded aliens had spurious travel documents, adding that many of them are believed to be victims of human trafficking syndicates.

“These syndicates have been using the Philippines as a transit point for trafficking their victims to other foreign destinations such as the US, Canada and Europe,” Mendoza said.

BI spokesman Floro Balato Jr. said illegal aliens are now having difficulty slipping at the NAIA due to the rigorous training that immigration officers have been undergoing to bolster their capability in profiling passengers and detecting fraudulent travel documents.