Dalian police said 25 illegal emigrants, including six women and three fishermen, were brought to the city in two fishing boats on Thursday night.

On Wednesday, a fishing boat containing dozens of people and apparently having lost power was seen drifting at sea, said Li Shengke, a ship owner whose boats were fishing nearby.

Believing the people to be illegal emigrants, the police ordered two fishing boats from nearby Dalian to conduct an immediate rescue.

Initial investigations revealed the illegal emigrants were from Northeast China's Jilin Province and East China's Fujian Province. They left Qingdao, of Shandong Province, on a fishing boat on December 27 in an attempt to reach an unknown foreign country.

Two days later the ship lost power. Located near Japan and the Republic of Korea Dalian has been chosen by certain crime organizations as a starting point for smuggling people out of the country.

Most people come from the northeastern provinces, but some even travel from the southern tip of the country, said Liu Boping with the city's police.

The city's border police disclosed more than 800 illegal emigrants and 60 smuggling organizers were seized last year.

During the past month, four groups of people were arrested for illegal emigration, Liu said.

( January 7, 2002)