bcbm
8th October 2010, 01:53
The red vinyl banner hanging from the front of Canaan market, a multi-storey wholesale emporium of cheap jeans and hair extensions, begins promisingly "Welcome to Guangzhou" and concludes, less warmly, "Please have your passport ready for checks by police".
This southern city in China (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china)'s Guangdong province has drawn hundreds of thousands of immigrants from across Africa in the last decade: from Burkina Faso and Somalia, Ivory Coast and Ghana, Tanzania and Angola. The banner and the dwindling numbers of traders here attest to an immigration crackdown that has alienated many and left young men injured and languishing in detention, community leaders say.
"You go home: the police are knocking on your door. You are on the street: police will hold you. You are on the bus, inside a restaurant – it's everywhere," says Ojukwu Emma, president of the Association of the Nigerian Community, whose compatriots account for almost half the migrants.
continued:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/06/china-crackdown-african-immigration
This southern city in China (http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/china)'s Guangdong province has drawn hundreds of thousands of immigrants from across Africa in the last decade: from Burkina Faso and Somalia, Ivory Coast and Ghana, Tanzania and Angola. The banner and the dwindling numbers of traders here attest to an immigration crackdown that has alienated many and left young men injured and languishing in detention, community leaders say.
"You go home: the police are knocking on your door. You are on the street: police will hold you. You are on the bus, inside a restaurant – it's everywhere," says Ojukwu Emma, president of the Association of the Nigerian Community, whose compatriots account for almost half the migrants.
continued:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2010/oct/06/china-crackdown-african-immigration