Western nations have uncovered an alarming surge in organised crime gangs using Hong Kong airport as the transit centre for smuggling mainland immigrants.
Kai Tak has been labelled an international blackspot in the multi-million dollar racket of moving illegal aliens to Canada, the United States and new destinations such as Australia.
The trafficking has prompted Canadian immigration authorities to add Hong Kong to their list of the 10 highest-risk embarkation points for illegal immigrants.
'Hong Kong is being targeted by these smuggling rings,' said a Canadian official.
The syndicates are mostly trying to smuggle poor Chinese from Shanghai or Fujian province to North America with forged passports or visas for up to US$50,000 (about HK$386,000). They then have to work as indentured labour or in crime to pay off the debt.
A US Immigration and Naturalisation Service officer said the numbers being moved out of China on airline flights far exceeded those who boarded the stream of ships destined for America a few years ago.