Mr. Chairman:

At the outset, I would like to thank the Government of Viet Nam for its well-arranged programs made for the 7th APC plenary meeting. We are very pleased to have this good opportunity to come to the beautiful, historic Ha Long Bay to exchange ideas on refugee and migration issues with all the distinguished delegates. I am happy to see so many familiar faces that appeared in the 3rd APC Mekong Sub-Regional Meeting held last August in Beijing. It is really a pleasure to get together with all of you again. Like the previous APC meetings, I believe, with all our efforts, this meeting will surely strengthen the mutual understanding and friendly cooperation on relevant issues among Asia-Pacific partners.

Mr. Chairman,

With the rapid development of globalization, countries in the world are deepening their links in all fields such as politics, economy, trade and culture. The number of migrants has increased remarkably world wide. Along with this regular international migrants flow, there are some negative elements and illegal migration is one of them. Nowadays, illegal migration has become one of the most rapidly developing transnational organized crimes. For the purpose of countering this crime, the United Nations has specially enacted the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime and its Protocol against the Smuggling of Migrants by Land, Sea and Air. Because of some geographical and historical reasons, people smuggling in Asia-Pacific region is always serious and has shown a rising trend recently.

We hold that the fundamental cause of illegal migration and people smuggling remains to be the unbalanced economic development and the gap between the rich and the poor. The labor payment and living conditions in different countries and regions vary greatly, which have produced the ?push? and ?pull? effect. Developed countries need cheap labor force, which pulls many people to risk their lives by smuggling to developed countries. At the same time, the poverty and high unemployment rate in some under-developed countries push a lot of people down to the vulnerability of being smuggled. In addition, some other factors have contributed to people smuggling, such as criminal activities conducted unscrupulously by transnational criminal groups for high profits, abuse of asylum policies, etc.

The issue of illegal migration is a transnational problem. The countries of origin, transit and destination are all disturbed by this problem, thus counter-illegal migration are at the interest of all parties concerned. The international community should carry out international cooperation based on the principle of ?mutual respect and mutual benefit? and in compliance with the United Nations Convention against Transnational Organized Crime.

Here, I wish to elaborate a few points on how to effectively prevent and combat people smuggling:

Firstly, effectively strengthen capacity building of countries concerned. This is an important and practical step and is the prerequisite for cracking down on people smuggling. One of the themes of this meeting ?Regional Capacity Building on Return, Reintegration and Combat against People Smuggling?, is of special significance. At the 3rd Mekong sub-regional meeting this year, all parties appealed that the next step should be put on concrete implementation on those problems faced by many countries, such as financial constraint, lack of advanced technology and backwardness of infrastructure, etc. Just as Mr. Pham Quang Vinh, the coordinator has said that capacity is the top priority of this region. For this reason, we should strengthen law enforcement and personnel training to improve the capability and quality of administrative personnel in each country. At the same time, we should promote the cooperation in entry and exit management techniques, such as identifying forged documents, encouraging and helping each country to apply advanced technology to anti-document forging measures.

Secondly, actively develop the activities of anti-smuggling information campaign in various forms. In order to enhance the anti-people smuggling awareness of people of all walks of life, the related laws and regulations should be widely publicized, the harm of people smuggling and trafficking in persons should be disclosed, and the help provided to victims should be conveyed to the general public.

Thirdly, exchange experience and information. It is very important to exchange information about the cases of people smuggling and activities of snake-heads, including the route taken by smugglers and smuggling network, etc.

Fourthly, strengthen solidarity and conduct international cooperation. Developed countries should provide technical and financial aid to the developing countries to improve their ability of striking illegal migration.

Fifthly, the role of international organizations, such as UN agencies and IOM, and their respective expertise and technical capacity should be given full play.

Mr. Chairman,

China is also faced with severe challenges in the field of illegal migration. On the one hand, a few Chinese citizens smuggled to other countries through irregular means. In 2001, the Chinese Government received 15,000 repatriated Chinese citizens. During the first three quarters of this year, the public security organs have dealt with 5,186 stow-aways. On the other hand, China has become a transit and destination country of irregular migrants. According to incomplete statistics, by the year 2000, the Chinese Police had tracked down and seized 85,000 foreign citizens who entered, stayed, and worked illegally in China. China is consistently opposed to illegal migration. In order to address this problem, we formulated related laws and regulations, rigorously enforced the entry and exit documents management, strengthened law enforcement, and actively developed the activities of information campaign and public education. The police carried out special activities of anti-people smuggling, focusing on the comprehensive management in people smuggling. As a result, lots of cases of people smuggling have been tracked down, large number of smuggling organizers have been punished, and the spread of smuggling activities have been held back.

Once again, this meeting provided us with a good opportunity for us to exchange experience and share information with our partners in the Asia-Pacific region to combat people smuggling activities.

Thank you all!