(UPDATE) FORMER presidential spokesman Harry Roque was removed from a flight from Amsterdam to Vienna on Tuesday after Dutch authorities raised concerns over his fitness to travel and the status of his asylum application, insisting the incident had nothing to do with any arrest.
Roque, who has been in the Netherlands seeking asylum, said he was taken off the plane after airline staff and airport police asked whether he wished to proceed with the trip to Austria, the country that issued his Schengen visa. Under Europe’s Dublin Regulation, Austria is responsible for processing his protection claim.
“They asked me: ‘Do you really want to fly?’ I said, ‘Of course not,’” Roque said in an online interview, explaining that his surgeons had declared him medically unfit to travel. Dutch immigration doctors, however, issued a separate opinion finding him “fit to fly.” Before boarding, Roque said he had noticed a fellow passenger — whom he described as a Filipino who appeared to be military or police personnel — taking photos and video of him at the gate. Dutch authorities later confirmed a 10-second clip had been deleted from the individual’s phone, he said. The passenger was allowed to continue the flight.
“I was upset. Why did they let that person fly? As an asylum seeker, there is a real threat to my life,” he said. Roque added that Filipino supporters in The Hague stayed at the airport until the matter was resolved.
Responding to online speculation, Roque denied that he had been arrested at Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. “No one arrested me. I am free here in The Hague,” he said.
The Department of Justice (DOJ) said on Wednesday it trusts Austria’s asylum process and expects the country’s authorities to evaluate Roque’s claim based on their procedures. “We believe the relevant asylum authority in Austria will do the necessary research and validation of the information that attorney Harry Roque will be giving them,” Chief State Counsel Dennis Chan said.
Chan reiterated that asylum applicants must be physically present in the country where they are filing their request. “If attorney Roque is asking for asylum in the Netherlands, then he should be in the Netherlands to process his application. If, based on his statement, the Austrian government will give him asylum protection, then he should be in Austria,” he said.
The DOJ said it could not confirm Roque’s claim that Dutch authorities had booked his flight to Vienna, citing confidentiality rules governing asylum proceedings.
Roque is facing qualified human trafficking charges linked to the Philippine offshore gaming operator or POGO hub Lucky South 99. The Presidential Anti-Organized Crime Commission earlier said the Philippine government has asked Interpol to issue a Red Notice for his arrest.