Bangladesh on Macau visa restriction list
The Macau government included Bangladesh in the list of visa restriction although Bangladeshis are not involved in any major crime.
Citizens from Bangladesh, Nepal, Nigeria, Pakistan, Sri Lanka and Vietnam will have to pay at least 30 US dollar from July 1 for an entry permit to Macau, a special administrative region (SAR) of China.
Nationals from these six countries must obtain an authorisation to enter and stay in Macau at the Chinese embassy, consulate or diplomatic representation in their place of residence prior to their arrival in Macau. For that, people will be charged a standard fee of 30 US dollar.
An additional tax of 20 US dollar was also set, in case there is a need to contact the Macau SAR immigration services for gathering more information, according to Macau Daily Times.
Macau also stopped issuing on-arrival visas to nationals from Nepal, Bangladesh, Pakistan, Sri Lanka, Vietnam and Nigeria. Exemptions are set for diplomatic missions and consular staff, as well as members of international organisations registered in mainland China and their relatives.
When contacted, a foreign ministry official said the ministry would take up the issue with the authorities concerned of Macau and Chinese government and pursue them to withdraw the restrictions.
He said it established the new visa requirements in a bid to solve the problems of an increasing number of overstayers, illegal workers and drug traffickers.
According to Hong Kong administration data, in the first four months of this year, the Security Forces Coordination Office registered 73 incidents of crime committed by the citizens from these six countries -- Vietnamese people (59), Nepalese (10), Pakistanis (3) and Bangladeshi (1).
In 2009, Vietnam appears again as the country from the group of six placed at the top of the crimes' list with 243 charges. Nepal comes in second place (28), followed by Nigeria (9), Sri Lanka (8), Pakistan (5) and Bangladesh (2).
As for overstaying, in the first four months of this year, authorities identified 234 people from these six countries, mainly women (143). Most of the overstayers between January and April were from Vietnam (169), 46 from Nepal, nine from Bangladesh, six from Pakistan, three from Nigeria and one from Sri Lanka.
In 2009, 1,548 people were found to be overstaying their visas, of which 1,128 were Vietnamese, 308 Nepalese, 48 Bangladeshis, 29 Sri Lankans, 22 Pakistanis and 13 Nigerian.
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