In a bid to better manage the large foreign population, the city of Guangzhou, South China'sGuangdong Province has set up a special team to inspect the documents of foreignersanywhere in the city, local newspaper Yangcheng Evening News reported Wednesday.
Government data shows Guangzhou had around 118,000 legal foreign residents as of lateOctober, among which 16,000 were from Africa. The number does not include foreignerswho entered or worked illegally, which is the purpose of the inspection.
The team consists of police and special force officers, plainclothesmen and interpreters.They have been checking passports and residence papers in areas frequented byforeigners. Those without legitimate ID papers will be taken to a police station forverification.
Several rounds of inspections on Monday went through smoothly without conflict, althoughsome foreigners resisted, according to the Yangcheng Evening News.
With an increasing number of foreign residents, Guangzhou has strengthened managementand inspection in recent years, screening out illegal foreigners.
One of the major goals is to prevent cross-border crimes, wherein foreigners with criminalrecords entered the city with fake documents, said an exit and entry officer.
The city has launched a portrait matching system to prevent such misconduct, said theofficer.
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