Foreign sex predators intercepted at NAIA

Foreign sex predators intercepted at NAIA | Daily Tribune

The Bureau of Immigration (BI) on Thursday reported that its operatives at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) intercepted three more foreign sexual offenders after they were regarded as undesirable aliens.

BI commissioner Norman Tansingco narrated that the three passengers were stopped at NAIA Terminal 1 last week as they attempted to enter the country as tourists.

The foreigners were identified as Americans Jeffrey William Jewitt, Charles David James Weatherall and Momodu Wurie Jalloh.

Reports said that Jewitt was denied entry on 5 April upon his arrival in the country via a Korean Airlines flight from Incheon, South Korea.

Based on data gathered by the BI Border Control and Intelligence Unit (BI-BCIU), Jewitt was found guilty in 2012 of having sex offenses by an Illinois court and along with an allegation of sexually abusing a 12-year-old child, the suspect was also found guilty on two counts of abduction and luring a 16-year-old girl.

Weatherall, on the other hand, was refused entry on 7 April after he arrived in the country via an Air China flight from Beijing. The suspect was convicted of child pornography for possessing indecent images of children in the United Kingdom, according to the BI-BCIU.

On 8 April, Momodu was excluded after arriving at NAIA Terminal 1 via a Saudi Airlines flight from Jeddah, Saudi Arabia. Reports from the BI-Interpol said that Momodu was found guilty in Virginia of aggravated sexual assault with a disability, a case in which the victim was a 21-year-old woman.

Tansingco said that as a consequence of their exclusion, the three aliens have been placed on the immigration blacklist.

Under the Immigration Act, aliens found guilty of crimes that are morally repugnant are immediately prohibited from entering the country.

“As gatekeepers of the country, immigration officers are chiefly responsible for seeing to it that unwanted aliens are immediately turned away upon arriving in any of our international ports of entry,” Tansingco said.