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Thursday, January 13 2:05 AM SGT

US takes multi-pronged approach to control smuggling of Chinese migrants

The United States is taking a multi-pronged approach to try and control the smuggling of Chinese illegal immigrants, an immigration official said Wednesday after desperate migrants were found sealed into an ocean-going container.

"We are working with other governments to stop this," Don Mueller told AFP, admitting that it was an almost impossible task to keep up with the smugglers, known as snakeheads.

"They are not going to stop trying to smuggle because it is so profitable. We are going to try and keep pace with them and put a stop to it," he said.

On Monday, a cargo ship arrived in Seattle, Washington, carrying 18 illegal Chinese -- three of them dead. Several survivors had to be carried onto waiting ambulances.

"The problem is ... when they seal people into a container," Mueller explained.

"The one with the dead was several layers down. People were sealed into this thing, and the (three) died between three to seven days away from landing in Seattle."

"You can imagine the horrors of a voyage like that," he said.

Initial exams revealed the three died of exposure, while the rest were suffering from lack of food and dehydration.

US officials are coordinating with their counterparts in Canada, China, Hong Kong and Australia to smash the smuggling syndicates organizing the trade.

"We have ongoing investigations -- I can't talk about that -- on the smuggling of these (people in) containers," Mueller said.

According to a security spokeswoman in Hong Kong, "Law enforcement departments have been keeping in close contact with (Chinese) mainland counterparts.

"There are frequent exchanges of intelligence concerning illegal immigration and human smuggling activities, which have resulted in the smashing of a number of alien smuggling syndicates in recent years," she said.

All soft-top shipping containers leaving Hong Kong are now systematically searched prior to export as shipping companies and container terminal operators tighten onboard security.

Arthur Bowring, director of the Hong Kong Shipowners' Association, said such containers would no longer be a secure method for smuggling.

But misconceptions about the US stand on illegal immigrants and growing unemployment in China are encouraging people to risk their lives to be smuggled into the United States.

"For money, I think it's worth it. If you're caught, you can go back again. Staying in China is useless, we won't make any money here," said a 30-year-old man from the province of Fujian who is considering sneaking into the United States.

Mueller said plans were in the pipeline for an information campaign in China to discourage people to leave their homes. "We're talking about the possibility of doing public service announcements with video from the ships."

"We're trying to get people to understand how dangerous this is."

And conditions do not necessarily improve when the immigrants -- typically males between the ages of 16 and 26 who pay up to 30,000 dollars for the passage -- arrive in the United States.

"They owe these enormous debts and they have to work it out it sweatshops, in laundries, and as prostitutes," said Mueller.

Container smuggling, where groups of people are typically crammed into a 40 foot by 10 foot (13.5 by 3.5 meter) soft-topped container on an ocean-going cargo ship headed for the US west coast, is a new and disturbing trend in the trade.

Mueller explained the recent upsurge in soft-topped container smuggling as a reaction to the successful interdiction of "rust-bucket" smuggling, where illegal immigrants were packed into the hold of older fishing vessels.