A group of 22 illegal immigrants, including a three-year-old girl, were thwarted by marine police yesterday while apparently on their way to Hong Kong via boat.
The group, which was reportedly crowded onto an open wooden sampan boat, consisted of 12 Pakistani males, two Pakistani females (the girl and a woman believed to be her mother), and seven Indian men.
The boat was apparently first detected at around 5:15am, near the sea boundary dividing mainland China and Hong Kong. Police were then deployed at around 5:45, after the boat entered Hong Kong waters.
A source told the SCMP that the boat left Zhuhai on Tuesday night and sailed slowly, taking over six hours to near Hong Kong International Airport, where it was intercepted by police. The smuggling gang (also known as snakeheads) responsible for their voyage are believed to have taken advantage of the foggy conditions in Hong Kong, in the hopes of avoiding capture.
The boat was around six metres long, and was apparently designed to carry 10 people or less. The passengers onboard were reportedly not wearing life jackets or given any other form of protective gear, Oriental Daily reports.
“The smugglers had no regard for their safety,” said Chan Man-sze, a sub unit commander of Marine West Division. A 20-year-old suspected snakehead who was arrested claimed he was given RMB1000 (HKD1,190) to direct the sampan to Tai O.
The source said that it had been a while since such a young child had been arrested on a smuggling vessel.
A crackdown by mainland authorities has reportedly resulted in fewer attempts at human smuggling, with no groups of illegal immigrants intercepted between mid-February and yesterday.
According to initial investigations, most of the detainees were aiming to lodge asylum applications in Hong Kong.
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