A Ghanaian national suspected of illegally staying in Taiwan for an estimated 34 years has been arrested, after officers noticed her “acting suspiciously” when they approached her in New Taipei City’s Lujhou district.
While on patrol on 14 October, Taipei Times reports that, the police encountered a female foreign national waiting under a covered walkway in the Luzhou district.
When officers asked her to present an Alien Resident Certificate (ARC) or passport, she could not understand Mandarin and communicated with gestures.
Police investigated and found that the 63-year-old woman whose name is yet to be made public is from Ghana.
She entered Taiwan for the first time in June 1989 after a transit from Hong Kong and left in March 1990, the police said.
However, there are no immigration records to show when the woman re-entered Taiwan, police added.
Police quoted the Ghanaian national as saying, through an interpreter, that she lives alone in a rented residence and works as a cleaner for a living.
The woman has been handed over to prosecutors for further investigation on suspicion of contravening Taiwan’s immigration law, police said.
She is being held in a shelter provided by the New Taipei City service center of the National Immigration Agency.
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