–for immigration fraud

AFTER being placed on a one-year deportation order, eight Chinese citizens on Tuesday found themselves before the courts again and were again ordered deported, this time for immigration fraud.

The four men and two women appeared before Chief Magistrate Ann McLennan on Tuesday and denied the charge when it was read to them with the aid of an interpreter.
Charged and deported are: Aihua Wang; Bin Ye; Jun Qing Ma; Yhong Guo Wu; Xiaohn Zheng; Lin Hong; Zhengcheng Wong; and Gablin Feng.

Particulars of the charge allege that on September 1, 2017 at Georgetown, they attempted to use a permit which had not been issued by the local immigration authorities, and which they were not entitled to use.

According to reports read in court by Police Prosecutor, Arwin Moore, on August 22, 2017, the defendants came to Guyana illegally, via Suriname through the “backtrack” route at Springlands, Berbice and boarded a minibus there.
When the bus was stopped at a road block by police at Fort Wellington, West Coast Berbice, and the eight accused were asked to produce their passports, it was revealed that they had entered the country illegally.

Moore said when the foreign nationals appeared in the Springlands Magistrates Court on August 24, they were each fined $20,000 and deported back to Suriname, for illegal entry.
On their return to Guyana on August 30, while being processed at the Springlands Immigration Department, it was discovered that they had failed to comply with the deportation order, which was valid for one year.

In their defence, they told the police that following their deportation to Suriname, they went to the Guyana Consulate and applied for tourist visas
Upon investigation, it was discovered that the accused never met with the Guyanese Consul in Suriname, nor did they apply for visitors’ visas.

All eight of them were reportedly arrested by the police at the Sleep-Inn Hotel during a raid on September 1.
They were each fined $70,000, and ordered to be deported when they appeared before Magistrate McLennan on Tuesday.