Hong Kong and mainland police have smashed three cross-border human-smuggling syndicates and arrested nearly 3,000 illegal immigrants heading for the city, most of them from Vietnam and Pakistan.

Announcing the results of the first phase of the mega crackdown, which began a month ago, they said yesterday the operation would continue for another 16 months in a concerted effort to tackle the growing trend of economic migrants and bogus asylum seekers flocking to Hong Kong, reports South China Morning Post. 

Since they started in February, Guangdong, Guangxi and Yunnan police arrested a total of 2,860 Southeast Asians and 83 South Asians. The vast majority were from Vietnam and most of the others from Pakistan, a Hong Kong police source close to the investigation told the Post. One of China’s counter-terrorism units was also involved in the three major operations so far.

It is understood that Hong Kong police passed on intelligence to their mainland counterparts on 94 of the detained illegal immigrants.

Police on both sides of the border also apprehended 142 key figures from the three syndicates which smuggled people into the mainland with a view to sneak them into Hong Kong. One syndicate was led by a Pakistani national with links to Hong Kong known as ‘Lo Fu Chai’– meaning ‘Little Tiger’.

The majority of the 2,943 suspects were arrested non-Chinese illegal on the mainland.

The police source said the gang led by ‘Little Tiger’ arranged a one-stop service to smuggle immigrants, mainly Pakistanis, from their home country into Hong Kong via the mainland. The group charged up to HK$8,000 per head, which included an air ticket to Guangzhou and land transport to Shenzhen.

The number of arrests in Hong Kong doubled to 3,819 last year from the previous year. About 90 per cent of them were from Vietnam, Pakistan and Bangladesh.