Fifth Estate

A news article titled "Vietnamese refugees with fake passports caught by BI agents" (13 Feb 2005, Manila Bulletin, page 2) got me thinking.

[The same story is shown on the inq7.net website but the MB printed version provides more details. I can't find it on MB online.]

Basically, the story is about 4 Vietnamese (1 adult male, 2 adult females and a young boy) refugees who were apprehended by Bureau of Immigration (BI) agents for possession of tampered passports. The adult male was able to escape, the 2 adult females are currently detained by the BI and the boy was turned over to the DSWD.

The MB dead tree version additionally reports that the Vietnamese were about to board a PAL flight destined for Ho Chi Minh City. They are apparently part of around 1,000 refugees currently living in a refugee camp called "Vietville" established by the United Nations in Palawan. In 1996, when the refugee program ended, the Philippine government was in the process of repatriating these refugees but stopped the exercise because of protests from several groups which included the CBCP.

The article reminded me of the film "The Terminal". In the movie, an airport official advises his subordinate that "enforcing the law is not always the right thing to do", or words to that effect.

In the case of the Vietnamese refugees, wouldn't it have been far easier and cheaper, for the government, to simply let them go? Eventually, the BI would have to deport them to their country of origin, which is, prior to their arrest, exactly where they intended to go (at their own expense) in the first place!

I fully understand that no one is above the the law but in this instance, is enforcing it the right thing to do?

# posted by KidPogi : 2:41 AM