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A 34-year-old American was refused an entry into Philippines and put on a blacklist permanently following his allegedly “disrespectful” behavior, the Philippine Bureau of Immigration Commissioner Norman Tansingco said in a statement last week.
Therefore, he has been banned for life for being accused of writing “profane words” on a digital immigration form and being rude to immigration officers.
Laurence had flown into Ninoy Aquino International Airport in the capital city of Manila from Bangkok, Thailand, via an Air Asia flight on November 7, according to the statement.
According to Philippine authorities, upon his arrival, he allegedly “showed disdain” toward one immigration officer when he was reminded to fill out an online travel form and tossed his passport and mobile phone at another.
Laurence, who told CNN he is a property investor who lives in the country intermittently, disputes the immigration authority’s account.
Immigration Commissioner Tansingco said in his statement that, “After verifying [Laurence’s information] in our system, the officer discovered that the passenger had keyed in a made-up address in the Philippines, did not include his full name, and inputted profane words in his entry.”
He added that immigration officers had been advised to exercise maximum tolerance, but the foreign national had “overstepped his boundaries.”
“Such behavior is not only disrespectful but also undermines the efficiency of the system,” the commissioner said.
“Our agency is committed to ensuring a seamless experience to the traveling public. We expect all individuals to conduct themselves with respect and adhere to the established procedures. Any violation of these procedures will be dealt with firmly,” he added.
But Laurence disputes that account, telling CNN that he had neither thrown anything nor raised his voice during the incident.
He said he had sought help from the immigration officers but was turned away when he could not get the travel form on his phone to work correctly.
He said he had made three failed attempts to fill out the form, then became frustrated and entered incorrect information in a bid to “quickly get through immigration” for his connecting flight to Cebu – and that on this attempt, the application went through.
He did not respond to CNN’s questions about what he wrote on the form and whether it included any profanities.
But he said, “I immediately apologized and the immigration officer wasn’t interested.”
“I even hand-wrote an apology to the immigration officer which he wasn’t interested in as well,” Laurence added.
Laurence said the Philippine authorities had overreacted and accused them of depriving him due process, adding that he was not given any official document informing him of the ban.
“In fact, I learned much of the government’s position from the articles they published about me and not from them directly,” he said, referring to media reports about the encounter.
He did not divulge whether he had plans to return to the Philippines, saying only that he would now have to divest himself of his property investments there.
According to the immigration bureau, it has excluded and blacklisted 44 foreign nationals it deemed ‘disrespectful’ in 2023.
一名美國遊客因在移民表格上寫下淫穢內容,菲律賓被終身禁止入境
菲律賓移民局局長諾曼·坦辛科(Norman Tansingco) 上週在一份聲明中表示,一名34 歲的美國人因涉嫌「不尊重」行為而被拒絕進入菲律賓,並被永久列入黑名單。
因此,他因被指控在數位移民表格上寫下「褻瀆言語」並對移民官員粗魯而被終身禁止。
聲明稱,勞倫斯於11月7日搭乘亞洲航空航班從泰國曼谷飛往首都馬尼拉阿基諾國際機場。
據菲律賓當局稱,他抵達後,據稱在一名移民官員提醒他填寫在線旅行表格時對他“表現出了蔑視”,並將護照和手機扔給了另一名移民官員。
勞倫斯告訴美國有線電視新聞網,他是一名間歇性居住在該國的房地產投資者,他對移民局的說法提出異議。
移民局長坦辛科在聲明中表示,「在我們的系統中核實[勞倫斯的資訊]後,該官員發現該乘客輸入了一個虛構的菲律賓地址,沒有填寫他的全名,並在其中輸入了褻瀆的詞語。”他的進入。”
他補充說,移民官員被建議要最大限度地容忍,但這名外國人「超越了界限」。
「這種行為不僅是不尊重,而且破壞了系統的效率,」專員說。
“我們的機構致力於確保為出行公眾提供無縫體驗。 我們希望所有個人都尊重自己並遵守既定程序。 任何違反這些程序的行為都將受到堅決處理。」他補充道。
但勞倫斯對這一說法提出異議,他告訴美國有線電視新聞網,他在事件發生期間既沒有扔任何東西,也沒有提高聲音。
他說,他曾向移民官員尋求幫助,但由於手機上的旅行表格無法正常運作而被拒絕。
他說,他曾三次嘗試填寫表格,但都失敗了,然後感到沮喪,輸入了錯誤的信息,以便“快速通過移民局”搭乘飛往宿務的轉機航班,而在這次嘗試中,申請獲得了通過。
他沒有回答 CNN 關於他在表格上寫的內容以及是否包含任何髒話的問題。
但他說,“我立即道歉,移民官員不感興趣。”
勞倫斯補充說:“我什至親筆向移民官員寫了一封道歉信,但他對此也不感興趣。”
勞倫斯表示,菲律賓當局反應過度,並指責他們剝奪了他的正當程序,並補充說,他沒有收到任何通知他禁令的正式文件。
「事實上,我從政府發表的有關我的文章中了解到了政府的大部分立場,而不是直接從他們那裡了解到的,」他指的是有關這次遭遇的媒體報道。
他沒有透露是否有返回菲律賓的計劃,只是說他現在必須放棄在那裡的房地產投資。
據移民局稱,2023 年,該局已將 44 名其認為「不尊重」的外國人排除在外並列入黑名單。
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