BI bars 2 sex offenders

MANILA, Philippines — Immigration officers prevented from entering the country an American and a German with links to the sexual abuse of children last Monday, the Bureau of Immigration (BI) said yesterday.

German Maik Bohr, 57, was intercepted upon arriving at the Ninoy Aquino International Airport Terminal 3 from the United Arab Emirates, Border Control and Intelligence Unit head Joseph Cueto said in his report to BI Commissioner Norman Tansingco.

The BI received information that Bohr was reportedly involved in the production of child pornography.

Also on Monday, the BI also prevented American Lewis Steven Sterling, 67, from entering the country after he flew in from Taipei.

Sterling was found guilty of aggravated sexual assault of a child in Texas in 1998, according to the BI.

Bohr and Sterling will be included in the BI’s blacklist, preventing their entry into the country indefinitely.

The interception of foreign sex offenders is part of the BI’s campaign to prevent the entry of aliens whose presence poses a risk to Filipino women and children.

Cueto said Bohr was denied entry based on a directive by Tansingco last month alerting all BI officers on the German’s possible arrival in the country.

Tansingco expressed alarm over the continued attempts by foreign sex offenders to enter the country.

He said the BI’s campaign to combat sex tourism is not just focused on Americans, who account for the bulk of registered sex offenders who were turned back, but on other nationalities as well.