BOI getting tough

[scott h]

BI stops entry of 37 foreign travelers | Philstar.com

We have all scoffed at times the lack of law enforcement here in the PI. Pass the word not to try to game the system for awhile. Folks might just be on the return flight. 

MANILA, Philippines — At least 37 foreign tourists were barred entry by the Bureau of Immigration (BI) in the first week of the country’s reopening of its borders to foreign travelers.

Immigration spokesperson Dana Sandoval said yesterday that while fully vaccinated foreigners from visa-free countries have been welcome since Feb. 10, arriving passengers who violated Inter-Agency Task Force for the Management of Emerging Infectious Diseases (IATF) guidelines were not allowed entry.

“Thirty-seven all in all for non-compliance with IATF guidelines,” Sandoval said in a Viber message when asked about the number of foreigners who have since been denied entry into the country.

[graham59]

Yes, we should all have our (very complicated and confusing) ducks lined up before arriving in PI, but....'Violated' . 'Denied' entry'.

The usual emotive pidgin English, portraying 'careless' or confused travellers as criminals.

 

Edited February 18, 2022 by graham59

[BrettGC]

1 hour ago, graham59 said:

Yes, we should all have our (very complicated and confusing) ducks lined up before arriving in PI, but....'Violated' . 'Denied' entry'.

The usual emotive pidgin English, portraying 'careless' or confused travellers as criminals.

 

Whilst I agree with you there are probably amongst those that were denied entry some that thought they could somehow dodge the requirements or they considered themselves "special".  We've all seen the sense of entitlement that some display when visiting foreign lands.

[Dave Hounddriver]

2 hours ago, scott h said:

At least 37 foreign tourists were barred entry

I wonder if they mention the nationalities anywhere.  On my last Manila arrival, a few years ago now, I noticed many Chinese tourists with absolutely zero respect for other foreigners or the BI officials.  I don't know how they got away with it.

[scott h]

2 minutes ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I wonder if they mention the nationalities anywhere.

not they didnt specify 

[graham59]

Phils govt will be making it back from the airlines (until THEY tire of it) .

[Freebie]

4 of those denied entry were because they had onward tickets to Hong Kong.....there are no flights from Manila to HK so.... denied.

[GeoffH]

55 minutes ago, Freebie said:

4 of those denied entry were because they had onward tickets to Hong Kong.....there are no flights from Manila to HK so.... denied.

That is something to think about... if one of us were to book an exit ticket from Clark or Davoa or Cebu to a destination that couldn't be flown to from Manila would we be refused also?

[Jollygoodfellow]

13 hours ago, Dave Hounddriver said:

I wonder if they mention the nationalities anywhere.

Part of it was 7 to 13 (conflicting numbers) of Malaysians which vaccination proof was not accepted here. After stuck in the airport for 24 hours they came to an agreement to now include Malaysian vaccination proof so the passengers were allowed to stay. The thing is the airlines should not have allowed them to board. Airlines were warned last week to check who they allow to board.

[Onemore52]

16 hours ago, GeoffH said:

That is something to think about... if one of us were to book an exit ticket from Clark or Davoa or Cebu to a destination that couldn't be flown to from Manila would we be refused also?

After all the money I have spent thus far in getting back to a normal existence, after being a wanderer for the last 2 years, where the only thing I haven’t done is couch surfing I would hate to get turned back for the sake of a couple of hundred dollars, makes no sense at all to me.

So with that in mind I now have 2 tickets to show them, one from Clark to Singapore and one from Singas back to down under, no problems.