Immigration police arrested 17 Nigerian nationals in Phnom Penh yesterday for living and working in the country illegally, and will deport them within 10 days, an official said.
The 17 were detained at an apartment building in Phnom Penh’s Pur Senchey district along with 11 other Nigerians and a Filipino who will not be deported, according to Uk Heisela, chief of investigations at the Interior Ministry’s immigration department.
Major General Heisela said all 29 were working as English teachers, but that the 17 did not have valid passports and visas, while the rest were lacking only work permits.
“Our officials had been investigating them for three months before we made the arrests, and we found that 12 of them had passports but no work permits, so we ordered them to get work permits from the Labor Ministry,” he said, adding that the 17 were being held at the immigration department’s headquarters and would be made to purchase their own plane tickets to leave the country.
According to Maj. Gen. Heisela, the immigration department deported 30 Nigerian nationals in the first seven months of this year, compared to 10 during the same period last year.
