Police have arrested 5,286 stowaways and 444 snakehead gangsters in a five-month-long nationwide crackdown on cross-border crime.

More than 16,000 illegal foreign migrants have also been repatriated, sources with the Ministry of Public Security (MPS) said Wednesday in Beijing.

"Illegal emigration of Chinese citizens and cross-border crime, such as smuggling of guns and drugs, began to rebound in last September," said Chen Weiming, director of the MPS' Bureau of Frontier Administration, at a press conference in Beijing. "So the ministry launched a special operation to fight crime along the borders between October 10 and March 10."

"It is extremely important to arrest the snakeheads when combating human smuggling," Chen said.

During the campaign, Chinese frontier police strengthened land and sea frontier checks as well as port inspections, Chen said.

The frontier defense police stepped up patrols and increased supervision along key sections of China's 22,000-kilometer-long land border to prevent illegal exits and entries.

On October 15, Jilin frontier police in northeast China cracked a murder-and-explosives case that resulted in 99 arrests, including dozens of human smuggling organizers and snakeheads from the United States, South Korea and China.

Also in October, frontier defense forces in southwest China's Yunnan Province foiled a major human-smuggling scheme, capturing 52 stowaways and seven snakeheads from Fujian and Anhui provinces.

Fujian has been known as a locus of human-smuggling.

To fight smuggling people by sea, public security departments enhanced controls over fishing boats while expanding patrol and inspection areas, Chen said.

Frontier police strengthened exit and entry inspections at ports to curb the use of fake documents as well as illegal transport of people in vehicles and containers.

In addition to halting Chinese stowaways attempting to travel to developed countries, the MPS is keeping an eye on the growing problem of illegal immigration into China, especially from neighboring countries.

Some of the people living and working illegally in China have participated in robberies, murders and other crimes that disturb the social order, said Chen.

During the five-month campaign, local police departments repatriated 16,282 illegal immigrants following inspections and clearance checks at hotels, rented houses, places of worship and public entertainment centers.

Between September and January, police in Jiangsu Province arrested 21 people suspected of organizing illegal immigrations and more than 100 Vietnamese women involved in marriage fraud.

Chinese officers have also worked together with other countries to handle illegal immigration cases.

A joint investigation by officers from China and Britain has made substantial progress in establishing the identities of the 20 Chinese emigrants who drowned while gathering shellfish on the British coast, according to the MPS.

"Police from both sides are still working together to deal with related issues after confirming the identities of the victims," said MPS spokesman Sun Yongbo.

A five-officer team dispatched by the MPS has worked with British police to investigate the tragedy since March 4.

The Chinese and British governments have begun increasing cooperation to crack down on human smuggling and increase repatriation of illegals, MPS officials said.

(China Daily March 25, 2004)