Shanghai police announced yesterday that they had cleared up 991 cases of entry-exit violations and crimes in the past four months.

The sweep was part of a nationwide joint campaign against stowaways that began last October.

"The drive was mainly aimed at cracking down on human trafficking and foreigners who entered, stayed or worked in the city illegally," said Ma Zhendong, director of the Shanghai Entry-Exit Administration Bureau.

Last November, police cleared a stowaway case involving 144 illegal immigrants from other provinces of the country.

"Seven organizers of the trafficking including six from other provinces were nabbed," said Chen Ting, an official from the bureau.

"The organizers just got passports for the immigrants with false documents, and made more than 7 million yuan (US$846,433) from the vicious business."

On February 5, police in Nanhui District caught a person who was suspected of smuggling seven local young women abroad to be prostitutes.

"Shanghai has frequent international contacts and snakeheads take advantage of this," Ma said. "Such a crucial situation may not ease in the near future. "

During the campaign, local police still handled 294 administrative cases by shutting some firms illegally engaged in human trafficking. Moreover, they dealt with 659 cases involving 687 foreigners who entered, stayed or worked in the city illegally.

(China Daily February 27, 2004)