Police have arrested 5,286 stowaways and 444 snakehead gangsters
in a five-month-long nationwide crackdown on cross-border
crime.
More than 16,000 illegal foreign migrants have also been
repatriated, sources with the Ministry of Public Security (MPS)
said Wednesday in Beijing.
"Illegal emigration of Chinese citizens and cross-border crime,
such as smuggling of guns and drugs, began to rebound in last
September," said Chen Weiming, director of the MPS' Bureau of
Frontier Administration, at a press conference in Beijing. "So the
ministry launched a special operation to fight crime along the
borders between October 10 and March 10."
"It is extremely important to arrest the snakeheads when
combating human smuggling," Chen said.
During the campaign, Chinese frontier police strengthened land
and sea frontier checks as well as port inspections, Chen said.
The frontier defense police stepped up patrols and increased
supervision along key sections of China's 22,000-kilometer-long
land border to prevent illegal exits and entries.
On October 15, Jilin frontier police in northeast China cracked
a murder-and-explosives case that resulted in 99 arrests, including
dozens of human smuggling organizers and snakeheads from the United
States, South Korea and China.
Also in October, frontier defense forces in southwest China's Yunnan
Province foiled a major human-smuggling scheme, capturing 52
stowaways and seven snakeheads from Fujian
and Anhui
provinces.
Fujian has been known as a locus of human-smuggling.
To fight smuggling people by sea, public security departments
enhanced controls over fishing boats while expanding patrol and
inspection areas, Chen said.
Frontier police strengthened exit and entry inspections at ports
to curb the use of fake documents as well as illegal transport of
people in vehicles and containers.
In addition to halting Chinese stowaways attempting to travel to
developed countries, the MPS is keeping an eye on the growing
problem of illegal immigration into China, especially from
neighboring countries.
Some of the people living and working illegally in China have
participated in robberies, murders and other crimes that disturb
the social order, said Chen.
During the five-month campaign, local police departments
repatriated 16,282 illegal immigrants following inspections and
clearance checks at hotels, rented houses, places of worship and
public entertainment centers.
Between September and January, police in Jiangsu
Province arrested 21 people suspected of organizing illegal
immigrations and more than 100 Vietnamese women involved in
marriage fraud.
Chinese officers have also worked together with other countries
to handle illegal immigration cases.
A joint investigation by officers from China and Britain has
made substantial progress in establishing the identities of the 20
Chinese emigrants who drowned while gathering shellfish on the
British coast, according to the MPS.
"Police from both sides are still working together to deal with
related issues after confirming the identities of the victims,"
said MPS spokesman Sun Yongbo.
A five-officer team dispatched by the MPS has worked with
British police to investigate the tragedy since March 4.
The Chinese and British governments have begun increasing
cooperation to crack down on human smuggling and increase
repatriation of illegals, MPS officials said.
(China Daily March 25, 2004)