China will tighten supervision of and improve assistance to its
migrant population this year to improve public security, police
authorities said Tuesday.
"Police departments will start a nationwide survey of the
migrant population at the beginning of this year," Vice Public
Security Minister Liu Jinguo said at a meeting of the Central
Committee for Comprehensive Management of Public Security. The
meeting was broadcast live online.
Small hotels, where migrants were most likely to settle, were
required to deliver check-in lists to the police regularly.
Village committees, employers and administrative centers were
also encouraged to help migrants register.
China has been experiencing the world's largest population flow,
with the number of migrants doubling in the past 10 years.
The country's migrant population has reached 150 million, 11.5
percent of the total. More than 80 percent of migrants are rural
people seeking jobs in cities.
Liu said migrant workers were an irreplaceable force in China's
modernization drive, "but crimes committed by migrants are also
serious in certain areas".
Last year, 41.2 percent of suspects arrested in criminal cases
were migrants, according to the Ministry of Public Security.
Liu said police authorities would join with other departments to
improve the legal awareness of migrants and more efforts would be
made to better protect their legal interests.
Meanwhile, police would try harder to resolve disputes between
migrant populations and local residents, Liu said.
The authorities would offer more help to migrant workers in
employment, housing and education of their children so as to better
integrate them into the cities, Liu said.
China's household registration system divides the population
into rural and non-rural households. Rural residents, who move to
live and work in cities, are required to register for temporary
residency.
(Xinhua News Agency January 17, 2007)