China's political stability and fast economic development have
made it a desirable destination for illegal immigrants, officials
with the Beijing General Station of Exit and Entry Frontier
Inspection said yesterday.
"Between October 1 and yesterday, we seized 83 illegal
immigrants, which is a record for us since our department was set
up in 1998," Li Junzhou, the vice section chief of the station's
repatriation department, told China Daily.
In comparison, frontier guards caught only 14 illegal passport
holders during the same period last year. They caught 22 of them in
2005, Li said.
The frontier station has estimated that the full-year figure for
this year would be two to three times higher than the corresponding
figure for last year.
Li said the illegal immigrants seized between October 1 and
yesterday were from Africa, Southeast Asia, South Asia and South
America. Some 92 percent of them were from Africa and had had
entered China aboard Ethiopian Airlines or China Southern Airplanes
flights. The two airlines started operating between Africa and
China last year.
Li said the country's political stability and fast economic
development had inspired more and more foreign people to travel
here to search for work.
"These people are likely to bring back a good image of China and
encourage more foreigners to come to China, particularly those from
developing countries," he said.
To ease the entry process for legitimate foreign visitors while
making it less easy for people to sneak into the country using fake
documents, frontier officials last month adopted a Swiss
immigration system called DOCU Expert. It allows immigration
officials to check the validity of e-passports, which are equipped
with microchips containing information about the
passport-holder.
The United States asked 20 visa-free countries to adopt
e-passport technology after the terrorist attacks of September 11,
2001.
Japan and Singapore were among the Asian countries that did so,
Li said.
"To ease entries into China for foreign guests, a group of
frontier inspectors working for the Beijing General Station of Exit
and Entry Frontier Inspection have been trained to double check
suspicious passports in just 10 minutes," he said.
He said China has always dealt strictly with people who attempt
to enter the country using false travel documents.
(China Daily November 23, 2007)
