Two Chinese nationals who were working in the country illegally were each ordered to pay a $500 fine and are facing deportation.
One of them, Haigiao Liang, was slapped an additional fine of $5,000 for entering the country illegally.
Liang, 22, and Weigao Feng, 28, of Guangdong, China, were charged separately, but both pleaded guilty in the San Fernando Magistrates Court.
Liang had pleaded guilty on a previous occasion and the facts were taken in his matter.
Yesterday, with the assistance of a Spanish interpreter, he told Magistrate Ava Vandenburg-Bailey he first went to Venezuela, but the environment there was so bad that he chose to come here by boat. Asked why he did not go through immigration, Liang said he knew the boat man.
Outlining the facts in Feng’s case yesterday, court prosecutor Sgt Chanardath Jhilmit said around 4 pm on March 27, Sgt Joseph Corraspe of the Immigration Investigations Unit in Port-of-Spain CID along with other police officers were making inquiries in Marabella.
His information led him to a restaurant and bar on Union Road where he saw Feng serving drinks to customers and receiving payment.
Feng was detained and taken to the Immigration Office where checks revealed that Feng entered the country as a visitor; he was neither a citizen nor a resident.
He was taken to the detention centre in Aripo pending further inquiries. Further checks revealed he was never issued a work permit. Feng was subsequently charged. With the assistance of a Chinese interpreter, Feng told the magistrate he did not know how to apply for a work permit.
Feng said he came here on a vacation, but the atmosphere was good and the wages were higher than in China so he decided to work.
Even if they paid the fines, the magistrate told them, they would not be released. “Immigration will be taking them,” she said.