THE Washington headquarters of the Immigration and Naturalisation Service (INS) has been criticised for not doing enough to control Asian gangs earning billions of dollars in the trade of illegal immigrants from Hongkong, Taiwan and China.
The Washington Post yesterday reported that gangs were now earning as much as US$3 billion (HK$23.19 billion) annually smuggling about 100,000 illegal immigrants into the United States, some charging as much as US$30,000 per person.
Those who could not repay were sometimes tortured and killed, the paper said, citing a January 8 shooting in New York in which two illegal immigrants died.
The report quoted a confidential memorandum from Mr Jim Hays, an assistant district director at the INS office in Los Angeles, as saying: ''While we have repeatedly proposed innovative local actions to attack this problem, we have been thwarted by Headquarters Investigations' lack of a clear vision on how to confront this dilemma.'' The news comes as two ships are understood to be sitting just outside Hongkong waters waiting for dockyard space so they can be fitted with bunks to continue shipping illegal immigrants.
Marine industry sources said both ships were expected in port in the next few days and ''all eyes'' were pinned on which shipyard would conduct the refits.
The ships will join the Philippine-flagged Sea Raider, now being refitted at the Dorman Shipyard on north Tsing Yi Island, where it has come under Marine Department and Security Branch scrutiny.