The police bureau at CKS Inter-national Airport said yesterday it has stepped up cooperation with representative offices of foreign countries in a crackdown on human smuggling.
Bureau officials noted that some smuggling rings have given their Chinese clients forged ROC passports or forged passports of other countries to allow them to travel to Taiwan for a transit stop on their way to the US, Canada and Australia.
"The number of such cases has reached more than 100 annually in recent years," said a bureau official. "As human smuggling rings can earn between US$30,000 and US$40,000 for each successful case, the issue is becoming increasingly serious."
To protect the image of CKS International Airport, the official said the airport police bureau has strengthened cooperation with the US, Canadian and Australian representative offices to thwart smuggling efforts.
"Our efforts have paid off, as the number of successful cases of smuggling Chinese into the United States, Canada and Australia via CKS Airport has declined significantly so far this year," said the official.
He said AIT officials and US immigration officers stationed in Hong Kong visited the airport police bureau last week to discuss cooperative measures to prevent crime rings from smuggling Chinese into the US.
According to airport police tallies, the immigration unit intercepted 206 illegal immigrants in the first 10 months of this year, including 122 Chinese. During the same period, 25 people suspected of having aided illegal immigrants were also arrested.
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