Illegal entry charges

Four Chinese men and a woman were yesterday charged with trying to come to Malta with forged Korean passports.

Yan Hai Dong, 20, Hu Zhi Niao, 33, Ji Zheng Xiao, 36, Fang Wei, 20, and Jin Dan, 19, pleaded guilty to making use of the forged passports and giving false information to the authorities on and before Friday. Judgment is to be delivered today.

Police Inspector Neville Xuereb, prosecuting, told the court how he had learnt that the defendants' final destination was Spain and that a fifth Chinese man, who was with them when they were arrested, ran a Chinese restaurant in Spain.

The defendants said they were given forged Korean passports when they were in China. They had agreed to pay the person providing the passports once they arrived in Spain.

This is the fifth group of Asian people to be arraigned in court on breaches of immigration laws since May 30 when two Chinese women were charged with trying to come to Malta on forged Japanese passports.

Another seven Chinese men and four women were arraigned between June 5-16. Two days later, six Japanese men, four Japanese women and a Chinese man were arraigned.