Illegal Ghanaian immigrants in China

Accra, Sept. 5, GNA - The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD announced on Friday that the Ghana mission in Beijing has been assisting Ghanaians in China without proper documentation by promptly issuing travelling certificates and new passports to enable them to obtain exit visas and leave for home.

A statement issued in Accra said officials of the mission had also established contact with the Chinese Immigration authorities and the Chinese Public Security Bureau, to ensure that detained Ghanaians who had travelling documents, air tickets and money for the fines, were treated with leniency and granted exist visas to allow them travel back home.

The ministry said it had come to its notice that for several years now, many Ghanaians had travelled to China and lived in that country without the appropriate documentation or the required entry visas. It said some Ghanaians who had travelled to China with the aim of obtaining teaching appointments as English tutors had travelled on visitors' visas, with the hope of obtaining the necessary documentation to enable them to teach.

"In most cases, they have been unable to gain the requisite work permits needed to work as English teachers. Such persons have ended up being duped by so-called agents who invariably abscond with the passports and other documents as well as the huge sums of money paid to these agents for their services. "In other events, other Ghanaians have also arrived in China on visitors' visas purposely to hustle and refuse to leave the country when their visas expire."

The statement said against this backdrop the Chinese authorities in their security preparations towards last month's Olympic Games and the up-coming Paralympics scheduled embarked on a massive exercise to round up and flush out all illegal immigrants from all countries who are in China without proper documentation.

"In the process, Ghanaians living illegally in China, many of them in Guangzhou and Guangdong provinces, have been caught in the security swoops, and have been detained and made to pay fines before being issued with exit visas to enable them to leave the country," it said.

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Regional Integration and NEPAD wishes to remind Ghanaians of the need to obtain the proper Chinese entry visas before travelling to China, so as to avoid running foul of the law in the bid to convert their visitors' visas to residence or work permits on arrival in China.

The ministry said the Mission in Beijing would continue to do its very best to assist Ghanaians caught in this predicament to leave China peacefully, adding that it was in constant touch and collaborating with leaders of the Ghanaians community in Guangzhou, in efforts to ensure the safety and security of Ghanaians.