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Change Your Life! |
Migrant smuggling a sophisticated business in China |
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News |
July 2, 2000
SHANGHAI, JULY 1 (AP) - Some use bogus companies abroad to get business visas for smuggled Chinese migrants. Others run multinational networks of gangs. Behind the thuggish image of a trade that sends up to 100,000 Chinese migrants overseas every year lies a shadowy but sophisticated industry.
And despite the deaths of 58 migrants found packed in an airtight truck in Britain this month, gangs whose sales pitch sometimes includes a money-back guarantee appear to be more successful than ever at eluding the law.
"It's getting more entrenched. Law enforcement has not been able to catch up," said Ying Chan, an authority on migrant smuggling at Hong Kong University.
Officials combatting the trade report a litany of abuse. To pay fees of up to dlrs 60,000, some migrants are forced into prostitution. Others would-be emigrants risk rape, kidnapping or murder.
But smugglers in China's coastal southeast thrive on the ambitions of young people who think a job in a foreign restaurant or factory is worth the risk.
Smugglers fuel the enthusiasm by spreading false rumors of high-paying jobs or impending amnesties in the United States and elsewhere.
The fee to reach the United States is believed to have risen by up to 50 percent in the past year, but gangs have tried to cushion the blow. They demand little or no money up front, and migrants who don't reach their destination often owe nothing.
A Canadian diplomat who recently interviewed people in Fujian province who dealt with smugglers said he was surprised to find that none reported being threatened or abused.
"People who were unsuccessful didn't have to pay, and there was no pressure," said Richard Shakespeare, immigration control manager for Canada's embassy in Beijing.
Fujian has for generations sent people abroad to seek their fortune. The tradition is reinforced today by money sent back by current migrants.
In Changle, a major migrant center in Fujian, banks receive dlrs 250 million a year from abroad, according to China's Central Bank.
The city is believed to be home to many of the migrants found dead June 18 in the English port of Dover.
In Fuqing, south of Changle, the city government says its banks receive dlrs 600 million a year from Chinese working in Japan.
The smugglers, known as "snakeheads," live openly in Fujian and neighboring Zhejiang province, often in showy villas with hot tubs and tennis courts. On Friday, a state-run newspaper reported that distraught Chinese who feared their loved ones were among the dead in Britain attacked the luxurious homes of two smugglers, smashing furniture and windows.
Local officials have been accused of helping the smugglers. Residents of Changxia, near Fuqing, claimed the local party boss charged dlrs 600 per person to provide introductions to the smugglers for the migrants who later died, according to the Southern Weekend newspaper.
The official was briefly detained by police but released, said the newspaper, which has a reputation for reporting on corruption and sensitive topics.
It quoted a former smuggler who described huge profits for ring leaders, known as "big snakeheads," who often are former migrants living abroad.
Out of a dlrs 26,000 fee to get to Britain, the smuggler said, a "big snakehead" might keep dlrs 18,000. At that rate, smugglers can make a profit if only 30 percent of their trips succeed, the newspaper said.
China has arrested 870 smugglers over the past year, according to the Public Security Ministry. It said the most severe penalty imposed in that time was an 11-year prison term, although the maximum sentence is life.
U.S. authorities say one of the biggest snakeheads is Cheng Chui Ping, a former New York City shopkeeper accused of smuggling thousands of Chinese. Cheng, who is in a Hong Kong jail fighting extradition to the United States, is accused of holding 105 migrants hostage until friends or family paid smuggling fees of up to dlrs 30,000. Police say migrants were threatened with death or disfigurement.
Cheng could face life in prison without parole if she is convicted of racketeering. Her arrest in April capped a five-year hunt by New York City police and the FBI.
Cheng is accused of packing migrants onto a barely seaworthy boat, but officials say travel by air is at least as popular.
Australia's immigration ministry says more than twice as many migrants arrived there last year by air as by ship.
People in Fujian say a standard route to Europe is through South Korea. A business visa is available with an invitation from a South Korean firm.
In Australia, police say they broke up a ring last year that set up front companies to obtain business visas for migrants. Taiwanese authorities say they arrested a separate group that stole passports for migrants.
Smugglers also have forged international alliances with foreign gangs to handle local arrangements in other countries, according to Chan, the Hong Kong researcher.
Migrants pass through the hands of a mini-United Nations of crime in Eastern Europe or Latin America en route to richer countries.
"It's a loose confederation of criminal elements spanning from Fujian to New York and to as many cities as you can name," Chan said.
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