14 Chinese nationals staying illegally in UP's Noida since 2020 detained

NOIDA: Fourteen Chinese nationals, including a woman, were detained here on Wednesday for allegedly staying in the country illegally since 2020, police said.

They all worked for a private company in Noida's Phase 2 and possessed valid passports but their business visas had expired, Deputy Commissioner of Police (Noida) Rajesh S said.

"The 14 Chinese nationals were detained by the Sector 49 police team. The local intelligence unit had information that their visas had expired in 2020 but they had overstayed here," the officer said.

The DCP said these detained people are not linked to a recent case in Greater Noida where another Chinese national who was staying illegally in India since 2020 was arrested.

This man, Xue Fei, did not have a valid passport or visa but was staying in a Greater Noida society with his Indian girlfriend. Both were arrested on June 13.

The Noida DCP said the 14 detainees have been sent to a detention centre in Delhi for their deportation-related procedures.

"They all worked for a mobile phone company in the Phase 2 area. They had applied for visa extension and exit permit recently but that was rejected by the agencies concerned," Rajesh said.

"All other agencies concerned are being informed about the case for further legal proceedings," he added.

The detained Chinese nationals have been identified by the police as Junhui Yin, Chuanliu Gong, Honglin Qi, Shilong Gang, Jintao Zhang, Tan Yang, Xiaogang Zhao, Yingli Zhang, Zhi Liu, Tao Wang, Dao Lin Zhang, Zhixiao Pan, and Huang Yingjie.

The only woman among the detainees has been identified as Feiyan Tang, according to the police. According to officials privy to the case, some of these Chinense nationals had arrived in India in 2019 and some in the first quarter of 2020, before the outbreak of COVID-19 in the country. "When they landed in Noida, they had shown their residence address in Sector 46. Recently, when the local intelligence unit (LIU) went for their address verification, it was found that they no longer stayed there but had moved to a different location without informing local officials concerned," an officer told PTI. "Later, it emerged that they had moved to a rented accomodation in Sector 48 and during verification they were found with expired visas, in violation of the law of the land," the officer said. During initial inquiry, some of them mentioned that they overstayed because of travel restrictions due to the pandemic outbreak here in 2020, the official added. These 14 detained Chinese nationals worked in the mobile phone company at middle and junior levels, according to the official. "They were not part of senior management or production supervision. Their jobs were similar to those of ITI-trained workers in India," the official said.