At least 40 Jordanian tourists who were stranded in the coastal town of Mombasa will be deported back to their country Friday, police at the coast region have said.
The tourists, who were arrested on Monday after they were spotted begging in the streets of Mombasa, were transferred back to Nairobi from Mombasa Thursday morning.
They will be deported back to the country on Friday evening, through the Jomo Kenyatta International Airport (JKIA), the police said.
They were transferred to Nairobi by bus, escorted by police officers from the DCI and the Immigration Department.
According to senior police in Mombasa through a phone call, the foreigners-19 adults, and 21 children had valid tourists’ visas. They were found begging in the streets of the Old Town and Mackinnon Market (Marikiti) area in order to raise funds to travel to Nairobi.
Mvita sub-county Police Commander Maxwell Agoro confirmed that the foreigners arrived in the country on diverse dates between August 27 and 29 this year.
“They were staying in various hotels within, but later they were found begging within the streets of Mombasa, which means they were flouting the Visa rules,” said Agoro.
Preliminary police investigations revealed that the 40 foreigners were raising funds through begging to travel to Nairobi’s Eastleigh.
After their arrests, they were taken to Coast Regional Police Headquarters for interrogation and handed over to the Regional Directorate of Criminal Investigation, said Agoro.
It is believed it was a case of human trafficking because they came to the country on a one-way ticket. However, Agoro said the regional DCI was better placed to respond to the issue of human trafficking because they were handling the case.
The foreigners were transferred to a hotel within the Mombasa central business district with assistance from a Mombasa philanthropist Hasmukh Patel, who is also the chief executive officer of Mombasa Cement Company.
Tudor MCA-elect Samir Baloo said Patel paid accommodation and food bills for the foreigners at a Mombasa town hotel.
“We have worked with the DCI Human trafficking department to help the Jordanian citizens who were stranded in Mombasa,” said Baloo
“Investigations carried out showed they had valid documents, but they were found to be moving around with children begging for money.”
Baloo said, with the help of Mombasa Cement, they accommodated the foreigners in a hotel within Mombasa.
“We are now transferring them to Nairobi. They will then be transferred to JKIA and they will be deported back to Jordan,” he said.
“In this group, we had men, women and children. That is the reason why we had to come in and intervene so that women and children were not affected.”
According to Baloo, they learnt of the arrest of the foreigners four days ago.
“We do not know why they were stranded, but they came into the country with a one-way ticket. We have done what we have done (helping them) on humanitarian grounds,” he said.
