Ghanaian woman arrested in Taiwan for overstaying visa for 34 years

A Ghanaian national suspected of illegally staying in Taiwan for an estimated 34 years has been arrested after officers on duty noticed her “acting suspiciously” when they approached her in New Taipei City’s Lujhou district.

A report by a local media outlet, Taipei Times, revealed that while the police were on patrol on October 14, they encountered a female foreign national waiting under a covered walkway in the Luzhou district.

“When officers asked her to present an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) or passport, she could not understand Mandarin and communicated with gestures”.

“Police investigated and found that the 63-year-old woman, whose name is yet to be made public, is from Ghana”.

The woman, whose name has been withheld, entered Taiwan, in East Asia, for the first time in June 1989 after a transit from Hong Kong and left in March 1990, the police said.

However, there are no immigration records to show when the woman re-entered Taiwan, police added.

Police quoted the Ghanaian national as saying, through an interpreter, that she lives alone in a rented residence and works as a cleaner for a living.

“The woman has been handed over to prosecutors for further investigation on suspicion of contravening Taiwan’s immigration law, police said”.

She has currently been held in a shelter provided by the New Taipei City service center of the National Immigration Agency.