A medical worker guides a citizen at a mobile nucleic acid testing site in Hong Kong, south China, March 16, 2022. On Wednesday, Hong Kong registered 14,454 new COVID-19 cases by nucleic acid tests, and 14,818 additional positive cases through self-reported rapid antigen tests, official data showed.(Photo: Xinhua)

 A local people's procuratorate in South China's Guangdong Province on Monday approved the arrest of a suspect surnamed Chen for organizing people to illegally cross the border.

After investigation, the people's procuratorate in Luohu district, Shenzhen, found that two people nicknamed Shetou and Xiajie from the Hong Kong Special Administrative Region (HKSAR) contacted 36-year-old Chen, who was familiar with the smuggling route. The two men needed Chen's help to pick up and transport four people from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland. 

After times of exploring the route along the Shenzhen border line, Chen on February 10 arrived in Ta Kwu Ling, Hong Kong, from Shenzhen across the barbed wire at the border, and guided the four people to enter into Shenzhen.

On the same day, Chen and the three others were seized in Luohu by local police and border armed police officers. The other one was arrested the next day.

After investigation, the four suspects were all illegal workers who had entered Hong Kong and later tried to return to their hometown due to the serious epidemic situation in HKSAR.

Two of them tested positive for COVID-19 and have been sent to a local hospital for treatment. 

Chen confessed to organizing people to sneak across the border.

The procuratorial organ said the behavior of Chen, who has multiple criminal records, constituted a crime and it was lawful to arrest him. The case is under further investigation.

This was not the first case of smuggling from Hong Kong to the Chinese mainland amid the epidemic outbreaks.

Hong Kong media outlets previously reported that 15 people from HKSAR illegally entered the mainland through Zhuhai, another city in Guangdong, on February 14.

Multiple mainland cities, including Zhuhai, Huizhou and Dongguan in South China's Guangdong Province, have announced cash rewards for people who report suspected illegal crossings from Hong Kong, which is being struck by a fifth wave of the epidemic. Many fear the outbreak might spillover into mainland.  

Global Times