Escape from China: the boom of irregular migrants in the US and Europe
After the first forced repatriation by plane, the issue also entered the TV debate between Trump and Biden. The post-Covid economic crisis the main reason. Routes also to Italy via Serbia, with worrying contours of modern slavery.
Milan (AsiaNews) - The phenomenon of illegal immigration of citizens of Chinese origin is taking on ever greater dimensions in various areas of the world. Just a few days ago the US Department of Homeland Security, through the words of its secretary, Alejandro Mayorkas, announced the deportation of 116 illegal immigrants of Chinese nationality in the first major forced repatriation operation in five years.
Accordingto data released by the US government, as many as 56,000 Chinese migrants would have crossed the south-western border with Mexico or the northern border with Canada between autumn 2023 and spring 2024, about 3,000 more than the previous year.
The issue has become so important that it has even entered the ongoing debate for the upcoming presidential elections, with Republican candidate Donald Trump repeatedly accusing his Democratic opponent, incumbent President Joe Biden, of being incapable of stemming the growing flow of illegal immigrants. The Tycoon has even claimed that behind the massive presence of illegal Chinese citizens there would be the intention to form an army and attack the United States. A thesis that at the moment does not seem to find any confirmation and that has aroused the indignation of associations committed to the fight against anti-Asian racism.
Cynthia Choi, co-founder of Stop AAPI Hate and co-executive director of Chinese for Affirmative Action told theAssociated Press: 'Trump's dehumanising rhetoric and blatant attacks on immigrant communities will only fuel hatred against not only Chinese immigrants, but all US citizens of Asian descent. Gregg Orton national director of the National Council of Asian Pacific Americans, says he fears a second wave of xenophobia, following that which occurred during the COVID-19 pandemic.
Although Beijing has been cooperating with the US government to stem irregular migration for some months now, the problem continues to be a source of great tension between the two countries. 'China is firmly opposed to the US using the issue of illegal immigration as a pretext to defame China,' a spokesman for the Chinese embassy in Washington said a few weeks ago.
Behind the painful decision to clandestinely reach the United States, according to a journalistic investigation conducted among the newcomers is the desire to escape poverty and the financial losses caused by the zero-Covid policy, as well as the threat of being prosecuted in a repressive society like China's, which places many limits on personal freedoms.
The hope for a better life therefore prevails over the fear of having to face a long and arduous journey, which for many turns out to be even fatal, and over the awareness of having to draw huge financial resources to support it, since ,000 per person is sometimes not enough to cover the cost of airfare, accommodation, payments to local guides and bribes to police officers they meet along the way.
For Victor Shih, an expert in Chinese economic policy at the University of California-San Diego, this choice, which demonstrates the high level of desperation of migrants, would be attributable to Beijing's public policies: 'China has a social safety net, but it is extremely small. If a health or employment catastrophe occurs, the government has very few resources to help'. Also according to Shih, outbound migration would be 'a kind of safety belt' for Beijing. And possible 'secondary repercussions', such as some migrants becoming 'politically active' abroad against the Beijing government, is also a negligible problem, as it does not pose an internal threat.
Every migrant family has a difficult story behind it, like that of Wang Zhongwei, a 32-year-old from Wenzhou, as told by the online newspaper Nikkei Asia. Wang led a comfortable life together with his wife and two small children. He owned a small company with thirty to forty employees that exported women's shirts to Europe, earning USD 30,000 to 60,000 per year. The economic crisis caused by the pandemic forced him to close the factory in 2021, and to support his family he started working as a driver for the Didi Chuxing rider platform, like many other former entrepreneurs in the same condition as him. Although he had savings, he could not cope with the numerous debts: 'I had suicidal thoughts every day,' he confessed, 'I felt like my whole world was a cage and there was no hope'. Hence the decision to sell everything and leave to ensure a better future for his children on the other side of the ocean. Wang then gathered information on the route to take by watching online videos of those who had already completed the journey, now largely censored by the Chinese government. After walking for days through the infamous Darien Gap, a region dense with forests and fords between Colombia and Panama, he finally reached the border between Mexico and the United States, ushering in his new life.
The phenomenon of illegal immigration of Chinese citizens, however, does not only concern the United States, but also Europe. A few days ago, the results of the Chinese Shuttle operation were released, which led to the arrest of a group of criminals, all of Chinese origin, involved in a real traffic of human beings from China to Italy.
The investigation, conducted by the Trieste border police, started after some routine checks last April along the Italian-Slovenian border. From what emerged, the migrants left China in small groups to fly to countries close to Italy that do not require an entry visa, such as Serbia.
Once they entered Italy via the Balkan route, they were taken to a sort of sorting centre in Cazzago di Pianiga, a town in the province of Venice, where they were detained for a few days. In order to deceive the border police, the migrants were transported in luxury cars, wore elegant clothes and had only a small luggage with them, just like unsuspected businessmen.
From Cazzago they would then reach their final destinations, including Venice, Milan, Prato and, abroad, France and Spain. At this point, the passports of those who remained in Italy were withdrawn and sent to China, and the migrants thus became 'ghosts' destined to be exploited until the debts contracted for the journey were paid off, segregated inside workshops or tailor's shops.
Another gruesome detail concerns the discovery of hundreds of photographs of Chinese women, immortalised naked with passports in their hands, other likely victims of what can be considered one of the routes of modern Chinese slavery in Europe.
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