RP arrests 10 Indonesians

RP arrests 10 Indonesians

PHILIPPINES: Ten Indonesians, including seven teenagers, were
arrested for illegally entering the Philippines through the
southern "back door," police said on Wednesday.

Maritime police intercepted the fishing boat Norhada 4.5
nautical miles off southern Sarangani province's Glan town,
police Chief Superintendent Ricardo Dapat said.

The men, all from Kechematan Patani, Indonesia, claimed they
were hired by Filipino boat owner Nilo Noro - a resident of the
southern Philippines' General Santos city - for fishing at high
seas near Indonesia.

The Indonesians failed to present pertinent work papers, so
they were turned over to the Bureau of Immigration for further
investigation, police said.

Hundreds of boats shuttle between eastern Indonesia's North
Sulawesi province to nearby Mindanao island in the southern
Philippines, where tens of thousands of Indonesian migrants have
settled in coastal villages and small islands, often going back
and forth across the sea border to trade wares. -- AP