Africans protest in China after Nigerian dies in immigration raid

More than 100 African people surrounded a police station in Guangzhou yesterday afternoon after a Nigerian man died during an immigration raid, state media said today.

Reports said he jumped out of a second floor shop window as police mounted surprise passport checks. Other protesters suggested two people had died.

It is unusual for foreigners to protest in China. But state news agency Xinhua reported that protesters took the body of the man, who it said was trying to evade police because his visa had expired, to a police station to demand justice.

The Hong Kong based-South China Morning Post said six witnesses confirmed the man had died and its reporter saw a video of him falling and of his body lying on the ground with blood pouring from his head.

But a police officer at the scene denied any deaths, Xinhua reported. A press release from the police authority said a "foreign suspect doing illegal currency exchange" was injured when he broke a window while trying to climb out of the building, and another foreign man was severely injured falling from the building. They had both been taken to hospital.

Ademola Oladele, the minister for popular communications at the Nigerian embassy in Beijing, said an official had flown to Guangzhou to investigate the incident.

"These people's visas had expired … We don't have any details of what went on but we believe he was running away and in the course of the pursuit he died.

"If the police have pursued another country's national to the point of death, to me, perhaps there is a bit of heavy-handedness. [These things] should be handled in a humane and dignified way. That's what led to the protest I believe."

He added that such a situation could happen anywhere.

Oladele said he believed there were around 1,000 Nigerians in China, most of them students and academics or business people. Guangzhou is believed to have around 20,000 African residents.

Witnesses said the crowd was mostly Nigerian but included some protesters from other African countries. Many were also angry about tightened visa controls in the run-up to the 60th anniversary of the founding of the People's Republic in October.

Representatives of the African community said they felt harassed by frequent passport checks in their neighbourhoods, China Daily reported.

Mo Jun, director of the foreign affairs office under the Guangzhou municipal government, told the newspaper that Guangzhou has a large population of traders and business people from Africa, reflecting growing ties between the city and Africa.

"But some African traders stay here without legal passports," Mo said.

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