Canadian official questioned in Guyana over alleged immigration racket
Wednesday, August 18, 2004
GEORGETOWN, Guyana (AFP): A consular
official at Canada's High Commission in Guyana is being questioned as part of
a probe into an alleged immigration racket, police and Canadian authorities
said on Tuesday. Deputy Police Commissioner
Henry Greene said the consular officer was being questioned and Canadian
authorities were collaborating. In the
Canadian capital, Ottawa, officials confirmed a probe had started.
"We can confirm that an employee of the High Commission is being questioned as
part of this investigation," said Canadian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman
Kimberly Phillips. Canadian officials were
"cooperating fully" with the investigation, but Phillips declined to give
further details on privacy grounds and because an official investigation has
started. Guyana is considered one of the
major sources in the English-speaking Caribbean for illegal migrants to North
America and Britain. In the early 1990s,
Canada ordered its high commission in Guyana to stop issuing visas, after
authorities uncovered a massive visa-fraud racket involving Canadian officials
and Guyanese nationals. A former US consular
officer in Guyana is serving a jail term in the United States for selling US
visas in exchange for money and gold bars. He was caught in 2000.
Back...
Most popular
articles: viewed, printed and e-mailed
Printable
version
| 
