Overstayers.....

Hong Kong is facing the cold hard reality of today's world with overstaying guests from poor Asian and African nations.

An increasingly annoyed SAR government is stripping visa-free privileges from several Asian and African countries whose nationals are overstaying to work illegally and then claiming political asylum when caught.

So far this year, they have cracked down on arrivals from Ivory Coast, Congo, Ethiopia and Somalia. Also among the rising numbers of overstayers are Sri Lankans and Nepalese who say they are fleeing violence. According to a government source, there are at least 1,000 Sri Lankan overstayers who have not been apprehended.

It is obvious why some of these people overstay and work since the opportunities are so limited in their home countries and some are currently engaged in civil war, like the Ivory Coast.

These overstayers cost the Hong Kong immigration department money, time and lots of effort to track down, process and in some cases incarcerate and return these overstayers to their home countries.

Of course, this reminds me of one of my pet peeves with China... The United States charges high fees to Chinese applicants of visas and rejects many of the requests since there are multitudes of Chinese visitors that overstay their US visas inorder to work there.

The challenge of tracking visa violators is immense. Each year, nearly 30 million foreigners come into the country on business, for travel or to study.

Imagine the costs involved in tracking down the millions of illegal visa overstayers; salaries for the immigration officials, processing the illegal immigrants, holding them while their cases are being heard by the immigration courts and ultimately returning them home. It is also interesting to note, that the USA does not conduct immigration checks upon exit. But I understand that this may soon change.

Due to diplomatic reciprocity, China has decided to conduct a low level fight against American's by charging them higher visa prices than other westerners and restricting American's ability to get visas at the borders. I am sure, that the situation for American's overstaying their visas in China is a much smaller problem than Chinese overstaying their visas in the USA. I would venture to guess that very few Americans overstay their visas to work in China and that enforcement costs for American visitors for China are nowhere near what it costs the United States Government.

This is the reason that I have not returned to visit China for nearly a year-and-a-half. And honestly, I don't think that I am missing much.

But Europe has recently experienced similar issues with overstaying Chinese travelers and have rejected visas .

The high rejection rate for visa applications is the result of overstays, which have occurred "continuously and in large numbers," involving some Chinese tourist groups in Europe during the May Day holiday week, says Li Yan, an executive responsible for overseas business with Jiangsu Province's branch of China Youth Travel Service.

The Chinese may yet be forced to alter the visa regime for European visitors too.