More than two months after they attempted to enter Bermuda on false Japanese passports, four Chinese nationals are still in jail as Government attempts to figure out what can be done with them.

Minister of Home Affairs Terry Lister told this newspaper the four - Zhang Fenzhen, 27, Zheng Minxiang, 22, Huang Zhen Yong, 22, and Hedong Sun, 38 - are still within the confines of the Bermuda prison system and will remain there until paperwork proving their identities can be completed.

However, he added, that process has been complicated by the four's attempt to travel on forged Japanese passports in January of this year.

The four arrived at Bermuda International Airport on January 11 on a British Airways flight from London.

They were due to leave two days later for the US until they were quizzed - in Japanese - by US Immigration officials at the airport. None of the four spoke Japanese.

After appearing in court several times, the Chinese were told on February 12 that they would be deported from Bermuda within 28 days, or by March 12 - three days ago (MARCH 15). That has not happened.

Assistant Chief Immigration Officer Rozy Azhar said the Chinese had provided Immigration with all the information asked for, it is only a matter of receiving confirmation from relatives in China that they are who they say they are.

“It's not in our hands,” she said.

“We have liased with the Foreign Commonwealth Office and the Chinese authorities. Now we are just waiting for the Chinese.”

When asked if the four had defected or been exiled from China, Mr. Lister replied: “I don't know what they've done - all I know is they attempted to get into the States, but they are cut off there, and China won't take them back until they produce proper documentation proving who they are.”

“We are as anxious to get them out of Bermuda as they are to leave,” said Ms Azhar. “But none of us can do anything.”

Mr. Lister agreed. Saying he thought the four want to go back to China after two months of limbo in Bermuda's prisons, Mr. Lister said the identification process was what was holding them back. “Until they are identified they are stuck here,” he said.