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Louis Won

UP to 20 million rural labourers began the ''blind drift'' towards booming Chinese cities in search of work soon after the Lunar New Year, according to Xinhua (the New China News Agency).

  The pro-Beijing Hong Kong Commercial Daily reported yesterday that more than 100,000 rural labourers had arrived at Shanghai since the beginning of the new year.

  Chai Junyong, Deputy Secretary-General of the Shanghai Municipal Political Science and Law Committee, said that the aimless drift of rural labourers towards the cities began even earlier this year.

   The semi-official Hong Kong China News Agency said yesterday that some labourers left their home towns on the first day of the new year.

  At least half of the drifters were leaving their rural districts for the first time, and had no definite destinations.

  The report said most of them were expected to remain unemployed in Shanghai.

  Mr Chai said he anticipated a continuing flood of rural labourers to Shanghai.

  In response, authorities in the booming coastal region should tighten measures to prevent trouble from the newly-arrived people, such as sleeping or begging on the streets and in public areas.

  The Hong Kong Commercial Daily also reported that government departments in Shanghai had issued a joint notice stressing that all migrant workers should abide by the laws.

   Shanghai authorities said migrants who failed to find work would not be allowed to stay in the city and would be sent back to their home provinces.

  They warned also that all labourers should find jobs through the labour department and intermediary organisations.

  It was against the law for employers to recruit workers without authorisation.

  The Hong Kong China News Agency also reported on Tuesday that at least 20,000 migrant workers were stranded in the Chengdu station in Sichuan province, waiting for trains to big cities.

  The agency quoted a source as saying that many passengers had started leaving the station for the southern part of the country from the first day of the Lunar New Year.

  The source said the number of passengers soared drastically on the following day.

   Long queues of people waiting to buy tickets formed in the station's lobby.

  The report said it was expected that the congestion at the station would peak in two or three.

  Then, the job seekers would be joined by university students heading back to studies.

  Although the migration of rural labourers had put great pressure on the transport network and created problems in big cities, the Beijing-based Workers' Daily newspaper praised the migration as a ''prelude'' to the market economy.

  However, the party's mouthpiece the People's Daily quoted a rural worker as saying the the authorities should establish a labour market to help workers find jobs and employers find workers.



Rural workers start work search earlier