Following Myjoyonline’s publication of the plea by a Ghanaian, Kwabena, for Ghanaian authorities to intervene in what he said was unfair treatment of Ghanaians in China, many more have written to confirm the situation is really bad. According to Kwabena, many Ghanaians have been thrown behind bars in China because they overstayed their visas. He claimed the penalty for overstaying one’s visa is 5000 yuan, but any attempt to pay the penalty ends in an arrest and confinement. Below, read the stories of others who claim to be victims of the situation in China. Dear Kojo, I read the story by Kwabena which was put on your site dated 26th August 2008. In fact I am writing to confirm the story. There are a lot of Ghanaians who are stranded here in China. Most of them have no food to eat let alone job to do. Especially in Guangzhou many Ghanaians are behind bars for overstaying their visas. The law in China says when you overstay you must pay a penalty of 5000 yuan which is equivalent to about $700. What they are doing is that when you are arrested you must go underground for three months as a punishment for the overstaying. Sometimes if you are not lucky you will be arrested as you are about to pay your penalty. Now if the exit visa is given to you they will make sure about three strong police guard you with your passport in their hands until you are about to board the plane before they give your visa to you. Our embassy in Beijing is a white elephant. When you call them they tell you they can’t help you. Our embassy is a useless organization. Most of the people here cannot even locate their passport, the reason being either they have been cheated by agents who promise to renew it and could not, so making away with the passport and the money or giving out to a friend to use and could not locate the friend again. Now those who have no passport need the assistance of the embassy, but the embassy is not prepared at all to listen to any one, so then why are they here? Many Ghanaians want to come home but cannot because what to eat even is a problem. Here in China if you don’t have a passport you can not teach. Teaching is the only job one can do here. Many people come to China with F visa with the intention of changing it to Z visa so as to enable them teach but is not easy. To do that you have to pay about $1500 to agents and most times if you are not lucky that will be the end, you will not see the passport and the money again. Most people have fallen victim to this. I want to say it is not worthwhile coming to China to come and teach. I am writing from Wuhan a province in China. My passport has expired for a year now and I want to go home but I cannot. There is no work for me to do too, I have been hiding here for almost three months without a job. I have so much to say but I will hold on and when I get home I will write it for it to be published. I hope the government will come to our aid. Please this is my number for any further checks ***********(***) (Number withheld) Thank you. Nii Hi Kojo, I just read about Ghanaians living in China and their hustles. I am a Ghanaian living here too and the situation is really getting out of hand and the most dangerous part of it is that ordinary Ghanaians living in China have lost total trust for the Ghana consulate in the Chinese capital Beijing. There is one guy working in the Ghana consulate in Beijing who for the past years is causing lots of problems for Ghanaians here in China. He runs the consulate like his own business and Kojo it’s really pathetic .We know that consulates are in charge of its citizens but not the Ghana consulate in China. The Chinese immigration and the Chinese people on the street have no respect for African countries apart from South Africa so this makes the situation very hard but I think it's not fair because even if you have visa the immigration will still arrest you because they have no respect for us. I know they cannot treat Americans and EU citizens this way, why because if they do the whole world will know how the Chinese government is treating their nationals in China since their various consulates will fight for their wellbeing but not African nationals especially GHANA CONSULATE. Kojo, please act upon these problems as soon as possible before people start losing their lives because we are living in a communist country and we should all know that not all of us can live in USA, UK, etc. I hope we will not hear the usual answers by our government leaders and your listeners: WHY NOT COME HOME? Every traveller wishes to come home but you and I know what it takes to come home and I don't think that should stop our consulate and government leaders to talk to the Chinese government to treat us with respect to solve our problems here. I don't think back home in Ghana, the Chinese are treated like the way they do to us here. I think some of the Chinese are also involved in some criminal activities in Ghana but when they are caught they are treated with lots of respect and it's time we get the same back here in China even if the person is at fault, but like I said, will not blame them because if you go to our own consulate to replace a lost passport or deal with other documentations, you are not treated with respect by the Ghanaians working in the consulate just because they will not benefit financially from what you went there to do. The Chinese should give us visas instead of arresting us because no one would like to overstay if he or she is not afraid of what he will go through in the hands of the Chinese immigration just because of the perception they have about us that we are from a poor country where people are dying of hunger and outbreak of disease so the moment they see your BLACK FACE, then the next few minutes you will find yourself surrounded by lots of police fully armed. Kojo, please, do something for us because you are our last hope and please ask and investigate our consulate here in Beijing and I can be contacted through this e-mail (withheld) for more details. Please, Kojo act fast. KWAME (GUANGZHOU, CHINA) Hi kojo, What the guy is saying is true. I have been in China for some months to buy same items from one company in China. Up to date my goods have not delivered which has led to my visa expiring. The company told me to pay 20,000, RMB to extend my visa for me, but till date it is not done. So please come to our aid in China. I want to come home and if you go to the police station, they put you behind bars. Why all this? KWASI BOATENG.