Senior police yesterday told of a crackdown on a sophisticated international people-smuggling ring, known as the 'swap the boarding pass' syndicate, operating out of Hong Kong International Airport.
In the latest incident, two people from the mainland, a man, 23, and woman, 31, were arrested in Hong Kong on Thursday after they were caught trying to board a flight to Japan on passes registered under different names.
The pair, from Fujian province, had been booked on a return flight to Kuala Lumpur. But it is understood that instead of boarding they met a syndicate member in the transit lounge and swapped boarding passes.
The deputy district commander of airport police, Mike Howard, said the method was typical of the more sophisticated air people-smuggling rackets operating across Asia.
'They [the arrested pair] would not have stopped in Japan,' he said. 'They would probably have been met by another syndicate member in a transit lounge in Japan and provided with another ticket, a false passport and even a fake green card for the United States.'
Mr Howard said Thursday's arrests were part of 'a steady stream of people' detected using the same method.