Illegal immigrants, their enablers are targets in Guangdong crackdown

Companies and individuals are urged not to employ or lease houses to foreigners who have no valid passports, travel documents or visas, said a senior provincial police officer in Guangdong province.

Lin Weixiong, deputy director of Guangdong Provincial Department of Public Security, reiterated that employing or leasing houses to foreigners who have unlawfully entered the country is illegal.

Employers and landlords will be punished according to laws and regulations if they are found to have violated laws and relevant exit and entry regulations and rules, Lin said at a news conference in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong, on Tuesday.

Police across Guangdong will continue to spare no effort in fighting illegal immigration and illegal employment in the province, known as the southern gateway of the Chinese mainland, he said.

Lu Shaoqin, who is in charge of exit and entry affairs at the Guangdong Provincial Department of Public Security, said Guangdong marine police have joined hands with armed police, border police and customs officers to mitigate the problem and have investigated 630 cases of obstruction of border management. Of those cases, 613 involved illegal immigration－with 16 under the supervision by the State Immigration Administration－from January to October this year.

"A total of 959 suspects, plus 1,313 stowaways, had been detained by the end of last month," Lu said.

Meanwhile, police throughout Guangdong have also investigated 1,133 cases involving illegal employment of foreigners as well as 653 cases involving the sheltering of illegal immigrants, according to Lu.

Further, some company executives, employers and landlords have met with officers to discuss their legal responsibilities, said Lu.

Lu added that the crackdown has dealt a heavy blow to illegal immigration and contributed to ensuring good and sound entry and exit in the province, a window into the country's reform and opening-up efforts.

The provincial public security department immediately established a special task force after Shenzhen police reported a criminal gang that was helping illegal immigrants enter and leave Guangdong via its waters in April.

By the end of September, Shenzhen police, in cooperation with counterparts from the coastal cities of Huizhou and Shanwei in eastern Guangdong, had detained more than 80 stowaways following seven special operations.

Police also seized two vessels and two vehicles that were used to transport the stowaways.

A gang that used to be active illegally smuggling immigrants and migrants in and out of the mainland via Guangdong waters was believed to have been busted after the crackdown.

Lin Weixiong said police from Guangdong have detained more than 33,000 suspects after busting over 2,500 criminal gangs in 368 special campaigns launched in the first 10 months of the year.

Meanwhile, police froze more than 2.6 billion yuan ($400 million) that belonged to the criminal gangs during the campaigns code-named Jufeng 2020, Lin said. Jufeng means "hurricane" in Chinese.

In other activity, Liu Guoqiang, director of drug enforcement with the provincial public security department, said Guangdong police seized more than 1,305 kilograms of various drugs after cracking down on 5,244 drug and drug-related cases and detained 7,315 suspects between January and October.