Border police in the coastal city of Qingdao learnt on May 1 that a ROK man surnamed Kim was trying to buy a fishing boat, with which to smuggle the stowaways out of China.

    Kim had been running a leather factory in Shenyang, capital of Liaoning Province in northeast China. But his factory went bankrupt later, Qingdao police said.

    The police took action on May 3 when they found that the would-be stowaways started gathering up in a hotel and two rented houses.

    Statistics show Chinese border police thwarted 2,422 people from trying to steal cross the borders last year, detaining 475 on suspicion of human trafficking, according to the Ministry of Public Security.

    Since the 1990s, the number of stowaways being shipped from China's southeastern areas to developed countries has grown. Many fatalities have been caused by accidents at sea, according to the ministry.