A number of countries in Africa practice the exchange between cash and passports. These passports are commonly used to avoid extradition, as countries are not obliged to surrender their own nationals.

Le Monde writes that the Chinese government is looking for a high number of corrupt local officials who obtained a  new passport through foreign investors programmes in some African countries, and then moved back to Hong Kong. The key destinations include Sudan, Ghana, Gambia and Guinea Bissau. According to the report, at least 9,000 Chinese citizens have been granted a Gambian passport in recent years. 

Read more in Le Monde. For an analysis of the adverse effects of investor citizenship programmes see Jelena Dzankic’s EUDO/RSCAS Working paper.