29 Apr 2005

Fiji police investigate Chinese visa scam

4:07 pm on 29 April 2005

Fiji police are investigating the operations of an Asian woman allegedly involved in running a visa scam for Chinese nationals wanting to enter Fiji.

Radio Fiji says police have confirmed the investigation but would not give any details except to say that she ran a travel agency.

But the radio quotes well placed sources as saying people in China's Fujian Province pay the women up to 3,000 US dollars for visas to travel to Fiji.

The report says Radio Fiji journalists have sighted documents showing that the woman facilitated transit visas to Japan for Chinese nationals travelling to Fiji.

The report gives several specific examples of Fiji entry visas issued to various Chinese nationals whose travel was arranged by the woman under investigation.

They include garment factory workers, students wanting to study English, a Chinese consultant and even some Chinese nationals who disappeared without trace on reaching Japan.

One was arrested by Japanese police carrying a Fiji passport.

The Fiji police spokesperson, Unaisi Vuniwaqa, has told Fiji TV in relation to another passport investigation that police are not receiving much cooperation from immigration department staff.

But one senior officer has been suspended from duty for issuing a Fiji passport to the deported so-called Mafia Queen's daughter when she was not entitled to one under the law.