33 illegal immigrants arrested in Guangdong

Thirty-three foreigners have been apprehended in southern China's Guangdong Province, where they had gone to seek work. According to a statement from the frontier police of Maoming city, the 33 stowaways, all from Southeast Asia and including five women, were travelling in a van on national highway No.325 when they were arrested on Wednesday afternoon. According to a statement by one of the migrants, they decided to illegally immigrate to China when they read newspaper reports of a severe labor shortage in the province, local police announced on Thursday. The case is under further investigation, the statement said. A survey published on Monday showed a shortfall of 123,300 workers in Guangzhou, capital of Guangdong Province. Eighty percent of the companies surveyed were concerned about returning to full production after the Spring Festival holiday. Chinese migrant workers traditionally return to their hometowns for lunar New Year and look for new jobs after the holiday. This year, the shortage has been particularly pronounced, according to the Guangzhou Human Resource Market Service Center, which conducted the survey. (To stay up to date with the latest China news, follow XHNews on Twitter at http://www.twitter.com/XHNews and Xinhua News Agency on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/XinhuaNewsAgency.)