South China Morning Post :Police arrested 14 people when smashing a syndicate that allegedly smuggled more than 200 Bangladeshis into Hong Kong to work over the past nine months.They included the two ringleaders and two other key figures of a syndicate that charged each illegal immigrant between HK$5,000 and HK$50,000 for the passage, which took between two weeks and two months.The charge included an air ticket from Bangladesh to China, accommodation and transport on the mainland, and an illegal boat trip to Hong Kong, said Superintendent Chan Tin-chu of the Marine regional crime unit.Police arrested two ringleaders and two other key figures of a syndicate that charged each illegal immigrant between HK$5,000 and HK$50,000 for the passage. “The syndicate helped illegal immigrants to apply for valid travel visas to the mainland before they flew to Kunming and Guangzhou,” he said.”Transportation was provided to take them to Guangzhou and Shenzhen, where they stayed in hostels. The syndicate then arranged speedboats to smuggle them into Hong Kong.”Police said the illegal immigrants sought asylum once they were caught in Hong Kong. They were issued with a recognisance form by the Immigration Department to remain in the city temporarily, but they were not allowed to work.”The syndicate then arranged for them to work illegally. Their unauthorised jobs included cleaning and delivery work,” Chan said.A flowchart shows how the syndicate smuggled Bangladeshis into Hong Kong to work.Since July last year, police have arrested about 220 Bangladeshi illegal immigrants – all men – after they landed on Lantau or Lamma Island. Chan believes the majority of them were smuggled in by the syndicate.Figures from the Immigration Department showed the number of Bangladeshi illegal immigrants increased to 374 last year from 274 in 2013. There were 95 Bangladeshi illegal immigrants in the first four months of this year.After a months-long probe, police and immigration officers caught a total of 12 men and two women in a series of raids across the city yesterday.The two alleged masterminds were a married couple — a Hong Kong woman aged 25 and a Bangladeshi man, aged 45 — who were picked up at their home in Mong Kok at about 5am. The man arrived in 2006 as an asylum seeker and married the woman several years ago.”Investigations showed about HK$1.3 million had been deposited into his bank account,” the superintendent said, adding that police believed the money was crime proceeds related to human smuggling. The 12 others included five Hong Kong employers. Police were still questioning the suspects last night and none had been charged.
