MAPUTO (Mozambique), March 9: Mozambique has repatriated 411 illegal Asian immigrants who were sent back from South Africa after they entered the country illegally, an immigration official said on Wednesday.

“On the sixth of March, 256 Bangladeshis were repatriated,” Leonardo Bauhofer, deputy director for immigration, said.

“On the fifth 103 Pakistani citizens and 24 Chinese were sent back.”

Neighbouring South Africa had sent the people back just over a month ago after they entered the country without visas.

They had only been issued tourist visas for Mozambique.

Authorities suspected a syndicate was behind the recent influx of Asians especially through its international airport in the capital, Maputo.

Promises of a better life in South Africa, the largest economy on the continent, attract scores of immigrants yearly, mostly from within Africa.—AFP