Five Chinese nationals were yesterday locked up and now await deportation following their conviction for working in the country without valid work permits.
The five, Lin Guibin (37), Zhang Hong Yuan (42), Chen Caijan (45), Peng Erming (37) and Shi Jiahua (38), were arrestedearly this year while working at a mobile phone base station in Masvingo without work permits.
This was after they had misrepresented to immigration that they were holidaymakers.
Masvingo magistrate Patrick Mapiye fined them $300 each and ordered their immediate deportation.
State counsel Silivaziso Mupome told the court the Chinese men, who entered the country on December 23 last year, were allowed to stay in the country for 60 days. The five, who are engineers, were latter spotted working on a mobile phone booster in Bikita early this year.
Upon demand for their passports, immigration officials noticed they were registered as visitors, leading to their arrest.
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In passing sentence, Mapiye said the five should have adhered to conditions of their stay in the country. The five were yesterday sent to remand prison while the Department of Immigration processes their deportation documents.