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