Pair jailed for illegal immigrant service

A Vietnamese national and a man from Shanghai have been jailed for organizing an illegal immigrant operation in the city.

The pair liaised with human traffickers in Vietnam and arranged accommodation, false identities and jobs for illegal immigrants, Fengxian District People's Court said yesterday.

Vietnamese national Tran Dinh Hang, was jailed for eight years and faces deportation after serving his sentence, the court said.

His Shanghai partner in the illegal business, surnamed Fu, was given a three-year sentence.

Tran, who had worked in the city for several years and had a good job, was asked to help fellow villagers back in Vietnam enter China to find work.

Seeing an opportunity to make money, Tran and local friend Fu started their illegal business in 2012.

Tran contacted Vietnamese traffickers who brought customers to the border. After they crossed the frontier by climbing fences or overstaying their visas, he arranged meals and accommodation for them in China.

Meanwhile, Fu was mainly responsible for forging identity cards and finding jobs for the illegal immigrants.

The duo, who were paid around 2,000 yuan (US$324) for each person, were caught by local police in June last year.

From mid-2012, they helped bring more than 60 Vietnamese to China and earned some 120,000 yuan within a year.

In court, Tran argued that the smuggling was committed by Vietnamese traffickers and he was only helping people to find a home and job.

And Fu said that as he forged documents after the Vietnamese entered China, he wasn't involved in smuggling.

But the court said their contact with illegal immigrants and Vietnamese traffickers and their arrangements met the definition of "human smuggling organization."

The pair were sentenced on July 28.

Fengxian Court has handled a number of cases involving human smuggling offences recently.

In June, prosecutors in the district reported an increase in the number of illegal immigrants from Southeast Asian countries in recent years.

Many reached China via the Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, which shares a border with Vietnam.