250 illegal immigrants held
2006-08-17 11:57
Malabo - About 250 west Africans have been arrested in the past four days in connection with illegal immigration during raids in Equatorial Guinea, says a police source.
The would-be immigrants, both men and women, come from Benin, Burkina Faso, Cameroon, Ghana, Guinea, Mali, Nigeria, Senegal and Togo.
They came to look for work in Equatorial Guinea, the third biggest oil producer in sub-Saharan Africa.
A police official said: "Some of them arrived by plane to work for construction companies, but their contracts ended and they stayed even though their visas have long expired."
Others were known "to have arrived by sea and do not even have identity papers from their home countries".
The oil boom in Equatorial Guinea had attracted a large number of immigrants from west Africa, who often entered the country illegally.
Those without papers were often blamed by authorities for social ills, including delinquency, child trafficking and prostitution.