Five Zambian students are currently in detention in China for violating Visa regulations of that country.
The students have not renewed their VISAs after failing to pay their schools fees which is one of the conditions for their VISA renewal.
Zambia’s Ambassador to China Winnie Chibesakunda has told ZNBC that about 20 other students who were under detention earlier have been sent back to Zambia while three have been sent back after suffering mental break downs.
She said in an interview in Lusaka today that out of the 1600 Zambian students on self sponsorship in China, 500 are almost stranded and at risk of being detained and sent back home.
Mrs. Chibesakunda says unscrupulous agents in Zambia have swindled some students out of their money while others have deliberately misinformed the students and their parents that they would be entitled to scholarships once they reached China.
She noted that VISA regulations in China are tight and that universities are not willing to extend VISAs for students who fail to pay their fees.
She further disclosed that the number of Zambian students losing passports in China is on the increase and the Zambian mission in China suspects that the students are selling them to raise money for fees and food.
Mrs. Chibesakunda said the Zambian embassy in China , the Ministry of Higher Education in Zambia and the Chinese embassy are working on measures that will help deal with the problem.
Am pretty sure we have more Chinese with expired visas in Zambia, get a hold of 5 and return the favor to China.
We have more of these Chinase people here in Zambia just round them up and exchange them for our brothers and sisters.
All of you sending your children to India, China and Russia for education are wasting your resources.
Can the 50 pf protesters tell the Chinese ambassador to help the Zambians aquire those visas, as compensation for not attending the luncheon for the in coming president.
the 50 cadres do not even know a thing about higher education. One would need to have a 10 days workshop for them before they understand a thing about VISA.
Very sad. But hey h.o..why would they like to remain there, surely not. Dry exciting place! Car fumes, poor air quality, terrible racism(they call blacks Dogs), and all that karate chop chop!
As delicious as the food is, it’s best to come home. Bless them.
Sad
They probably sell passports to Nigerians lol imagine chibesakunda detained in uk for drug dealing and has a fun igwe accent is,t that a bummer lol
PF government sponsored these students and FAILED to pay their fees and uppkeep – same like they have done back home at UNZA and CBU
Education, Science, Vocational Training and Early Education spokesperson Hilary Chipango says a total of 1,055 Zambian students are currently being supported at various universities abroad.
Mr. Chipango said government remains indebted to the generosity and hopitality of the people and governments of those respective countries.
He said out of the 1,055 students studying abroad, 136 students were expected to graduate from Algeria, China, Cuba, Russia Federation and Tunisia by the end of August 2014 and return home.
Mr. Chipango said currently 178 Zambians are pursuing undergraduate and Post graduate studies in ALGERIA, 140 in China, 38 in Cuba, 12 in Cyprus, 15 in India, 493 IN Russia and 78 in Turkey among other countries.
I live in China and i happen to know that scholarships here are quite straight forward and easy to get and i personally know quite a few zambians with scholarships from the Chinese government…not to sound harsh,and I’ve been in the same exact situation before, but this sounds like a case of lack of foresight and also lack of resourcefulness on the students’ part.
Good luck guys,hope everything works out.
Things are just hard with the sponsors. Why all of a sudden students are failing to meet their tuition fees commitments. Some sponsors especially parents are to blame for poor planning when it come sustaining funding their children’s education whilst in foreign countries. Others are just doing to show off to others that they have money in fact more money in their pockets yet it just window dressing. Lets develop our local higher education by sponsoring our children locally. UNZA, CBU, Mulungushi, ZOU, UNLUS etc. are better because they are tailored to meet local conditions. In fact those concerned should start screening the prospective students and their sponsors before departure for China. At end of the day the image of Zambia is one being tarnished abroad.
This is embarrassing to our nation. These are our own, can the gvt please step in and help.
We can raise money collectively for these students should need be but please show us real leadership by stepping in to help mobilise funds
Chinese officials are overzealous when it comes to being out of the visa terms. As a frequent business traveller l never use the Zambian Embassy officials for renewing any visa or official document! So one day in Beijing, China after a serious drink with those broke compatriots, I mentioned that my visa was running out the following week. So one of the officials (a First Secretary) says bring it to the office we will sort out tomorrow same day! The bugger keeps it for 5 days and when l remind him, he says “Oh sorry I forgot, just take it to the Ministry they will sort out! In the end I had to leave the country and come back through Hong Kong. I said never again!