5 August 2009-all africa
Addis Abeba — TWO Ethiopian stowaways have been repatriated from China on Monday, 62 days after they secretly boarded a ship for illegal immigration, according to reports from China.

Frontier police said it was the seventh time one of the stowaways had failed to immigrate illegally, ShanghaiDaily reported citing Oriental Morning Post.

The two men boarded the Belize-registered ship Arbit in Djibouti on June 3, the daily quoted the report as having said. The ship arrived in Shanghai on July 18.

They originally planned to sneak into a European country, but the ship traveled along the Indian Ocean eastward into the Pacific Ocean to transport its shipment of goods, police told the Oriental Morning Post.

Members of Arbit's crew found the pair five days into the voyage when they left their hiding place to look for food, according to the report. Singapore, India, Yemen and Sri Lanka all refused to repatriate the stowaways, the report said.

"Arbit's crew treated the Ethiopians well and allowed the pair to watch TV some nights, they told police with the help of a translator." Police sent the pair to Beijing on August 1 to catch a flight that departed for Ethiopia.