Illegal immigrant arrests drop by 30 percent: police

(China Daily)
Updated: 2009-10-19 11:13

Beijing police foiled 321 cases of planned illegal migration, involving 387 people, at the end of September, a decrease of 39 percent, statistics show.

Among them, 263 are Chinese citizens who intended to go abroad illegally, while another 124 are foreigners, who attempted to enter into China or go to other countries via China with the help of human smugglers.

The world economic recession may help explain the decrease, said an official from Beijing general station of exit and entry frontier inspection yesterday.

"We believe that some people give up their plans of going to other countries because it is very difficult to land a job overseas," He Zhixiang, director of the investigation and repatriation division, told METRO.

He said that fewer people were using forged documents at checkpoints because of the improvements in screening technology.

But many people are now more inclined to ask illegal organizations for "professional" cross-border assistance.

This made human smuggling more complex to detect, according to the official.

In order to crack down on human smuggling, authorities have formed a new investigation department.

"We have set up our investigation department, aiming to improve our ability in investigation. With the help of the department, we are able to dig deeper when any clues show up, so that we can crack down some illegal migration organizations," He said.

Last Friday, the Beijing frontier police smashed a human smuggling case by arresting eight people.

Led by two brothers surnamed Wang, the group registered six migration-consulting agencies. These agencies allegedly assisted people to immigrate illegally using fake identities. The group allegedly earned over 10 million yuan ($1.47 million) over several years.

According to official figures, police have repatriated 5,568 people who wanted to enter China illegally from January to September, 170 of whom are foreigners, accounting for 3 percent of the total.

In France, a group of 12 Chinese were arrested by local police on Oct 13, Nouvelles d'Europe, the Paris-based newspaper quoted AFP as reporting.

They are suspected of assisting the illegal immigration of 20 people to France with the use of counterfeit visas and fake certificates.