Diaspora News of Sunday, 30 January 2005

Source: RIA Novosti,/Anatoly Ilyukhov/GHP

Ghanains refused entry to Russia

VLADIVOSTOK, January 30 (RIA Novosti, Anatoly Ilyukhov) - Three foreign sailors (2 Ghanaians) with fake identification papers were not allowed to enter the territory of the Russian Federation in Primorye (a Russian region on the West coast of the Sea of Japan).

According to the announcement made on Sunday by the press center of the Russian FSB Directorate of Frontier Services in the Primorye region (the time difference between Vladivostok and Moscow is plus 7 hours), last Friday, in the course of a passport control procedure for the crew of the foreign ship Tiran Saendi arriving at the port of Vostochny near Nakhodka (100 kilometers east of Valadivostok), Russian officials discovered corrections in the entry documents of two citizens of the Republic of Ghana.

On the same day, an Indian citizen, who arrived at the seaport of Nakhodka in Russia on board the Fortuna Star ship, was carrying a passport with a photograph that had been obviously re-glued.

All three foreigners are kept at present on board of their respective ships without permission to come ashore. According to the International Seafaring Convention, ships have the extra-territorial status, which means that they are part of the territory of their country-owner.