310 Chinese back home from Solomons
By Qin Jize and Liang Qiwen (China Daily)
Updated: 2006-04-25 06:21
China evacuated more than 160 Chinese nationals from Iraq when war broke out
in 2003.
In Guangzhou, the local government has vowed to help reunite evacuees with
their relatives and provide support services.
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A Solomon Islander of Chinese descent and her child
prepare to board a chartered flight provided by Beijing out of the
troubled Solomon Islands after losing all their possessions in the recent
violence in Honiara April 23, 2006. [Reuters] |
| Guangdong
would welcome the evacuees, many of whom had lost their identity cards and are
worried about their children's education, said Lu Weixiong, head of the
provincial office of overseas Chinese affairs.
Most of the group are emigrants from the province or descendants of Guangdong
people, so the priority is to help them contact family members or relatives,
said Lu.
Lu said evacuees could return to the Solomon Islands at any time after the
situation there stabilized.
Thirteen Guangdong natives flew to Guangzhou and two Chinese nationals to
Shanghai on Sunday night with the assistance of the Chinese Consulate in Sydney.
Of the 13 people, four are from Guangzhou and the others from Jiangmen city;
and most of them women and children. The oldest is 47, and the youngest is only
five months, said Lu.
He said most of the more than 1,000 Chinese in Solomon Islands left China 20
or 30 years ago.
"We spent three days travelling from the Solomon Islands to Guangzhou, but it
felt like three years," said Hu Meili, a 27-year-old woman.
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