The Philippine government has started the deportation of Chinese nationals working in illegal online gaming outlets.
Six Chinese working in unlicensed Philippine Offshore Gaming Operators (POGO), an illegal online gaming outlet, were sent back to China on Wednesday.
Justice Secretary Jesus Crispin Remulla said the six Chinese deportees were on board Philippine Airlines flight PR316 bound for Wuhan.
Remulla who personally went to the Ninoy Aquino International Airport (NAIA) Terminal 2 said some "400 more" Chinese POGO workers in custody will also be deported.
The Bureau of Immigration (BI), he said, already canceled the visas of Chinese mostly working at the illegal POGO outlets.
The Department of Justice earlier said the BI had already canceled the visas of 1,424 Chinese POGO workers - a fraction of the estimated total of 48,782 employees who have to be sent back to China.
"It was determined by the BI, through Commissioner Norman Tansingco, that a more cost-efficient and humanitarian approach would be to cancel the visas of the said Chinese nationals. Instead of deporting them, the cancellation of alien visas would simply allow the Chinese nationals to voluntarily exit the country within a non-extendible period of 59 days," Remulla said.
The justice secretary said those who refuse to voluntarily leave the country after 59 days will be "summarily deported."
Tags: #illegalchineseworkers, #flownbacktochina, #pogo, #bureauofimmigration, #secretaryremulla