Hong Kong Police Seized 156 Stowaways

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Last updated at: (Beijing Time) Monday, November 26, 2001

Hong Kong Police Seized 156 Stowaways

Hong Kong Police lately uncovered the biggest transitional human smuggling case over the past ten years. Altogether 156 stowaways, hid in an inland river ship at Tunmen, had attempted to stow away to Japan from east China's Fujian Province. A stowaway cost of 20 million yuan was involved. Hong Kong police appointed related investigators responsible for human smuggling cases to investigate the case.

Big human smuggling case uncovered

Hong Kong Police lately uncovered the biggest transitional human smuggling case over the past ten years. Altogether 156 stowaways, hid in an inland river ship at Tunmen, had attempted to stow away to Japan from east China's Fujian Province. A stowaway cost of 20 million yuan was involved. Director of Hong Kong Security Bureau Liu Shuyi stressed no sign showed the trendy that Hong Kong had been the transfer station of transitional human smuggling.

HK police investigating the case

Of the stowaways, 121 were male aged from 16-51 and 35 female from 18-40. The female stowaways were all from Fuzhou and Quanzhou except one from Chaozhou, and the male stowaways were all from Quanzhou and other countries within Fujian Province. Through preliminary investigation, the police learned the human smuggling organizers had called the stowaways together to board for Japan three days ago after shipping them to Guangzhou via land route. Taking such roundabout route was due to strict examination by Japan towards ships from mainland. Liu emphasized again that no sign showed the trendy that Hong Kong had been the transfer station of transitional human smuggling. However, he didn't rule out the possibility since Hong Kong is famous for its convenient transportation. He added Hong Kong would strengthen cooperation with other countries on intelligence exchange to deal with internationalized human smuggling cases.

Hong Kong SAR Government paid close attention to the case and the police appointed related investigators responsible for human smuggling cases to investigate the case. All the stowaways seized were sent under escort to Xinwuling for detention.

by PD Online Staff Yang Ruoqian

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