A U.S. woman is being held by Philippine officials who allege that she hid a baby boy in her hand luggage as she was trying to fly out of the country.
Philippines’ Bureau of Immigration spokesman Melvin Mabulac told CNN the 43-year-old woman had been caught with the bag at Ninoy Aquino International Airport in Manila early Wednesday morning.
The baby was only six days old, Mabulac said. Local officials, who identified her as Jennifer Talbot of Ohio, explained that she’d passed through the airport immigration counter without declaring she was travelling with the baby.
Immigration officials there said the woman appeared to be travelling alone and only presented her own passport as she passed through the airport’s security checkpoints.
But Talbot was intercepted by airline personnel at the boarding gate who then searched her oversized suitcase and found the child inside, Mabulac said, adding “she did not have any travel documents for the infant.”
She had planned to board a Delta Air Lines flight to the United States with the hidden child, airport officials told The Associated Press.
"There was really an intention to hide the baby," immigration official Grifton Medina told the wire service.
After she was arrested, Talbot gave officials an affidavit at the airport, allegedly from the baby's mother, giving her permission for the baby to travel to the U.S.
But it wasn’t signed by the mother.
Anti-human trafficking investigators from Philippines National Bureau of Investigation are now handling the case, with local officials now searching for the baby boy’s parents who have been charged under Philippines’ child protection laws.
U.S. Embassy officials are also aware of Talbot’s arrest, The Associated Press reported.
With files from The Associated Press
