Illegal immigrants planned to 'join jihad'

One hundred and nine illegal immigrants repatriated from Thailand to China on Thursday had been on their way to Turkey, Syria or Iraq to join jihad, the Ministry of Public Security confirmed Saturday.

Several recruitment gangs were uncovered in Turkey by a Chinese police investigation, which also discovered that Turkish diplomats in some Southeast Asian countries had facilitated the illegal movement of people.

A large number of radicalized Chinese and organized gangs' leaders, also known as "snakeheads", have been deported from Southeast Asia this year, the ministry said.

Of the 109 people returned to China this week, 13 had fled China after being implicated in terrorist activities, and another two had escaped detention, a ministry statement said.

According to their accounts, many had been radicalized by materials released by the World Uygur Congress and the East Turkestan Islamic Movement.

The recruitment gangs had used religious extremism to encourage people to go to Syria and Iraq to participate in jihad.

Some snakeheads, including Mehmut Obulela, one of the people repatriated, told police that the gangs were well-established and had a clear hierarchy. The gangs organized people to travel over landor sea through countries that include Vietnam, Cambodia, Laos and Thailand to enter Turkey.

After arriving in Turkey, many, led by the ETIM terrorist group, went on to Syria to join the fighting. Even those who did not get as far as Syria were involved in jihadist activities wherever they stopped, they said.

A terrorist attack on a railway station in Kunming, the capital of Yunnan province, on March 1, 2014, was the work of terrorists who had failed to illegally leave China. The attack resulted in the death of 31 people, and 141 were injured.

Police also found that some radicalized people, instructed by the ETIM, were trained in Syria or Iraq and then returned to China to expand their terrorist network.

Police have arrested many of these returnees and uncovered several terrorist plots this year, the statement said.

Each illegal migrant had to pay several thousand US dollars to snakeheads. Most of the funds were finally remitted to bank accounts opened by ETIM terrorists, police said.

Investigations showed that the illegal immigration was organized by those in Turkey.

Chinese police have detained 22 Turkish suspects since October. The suspects admitted being directed and assisted by organizers in Turkey, police said.

Police also said Turkish diplomats to a Southeast Asian country had directly participated in "helping out" a suspect, Eli Ahmad, from local authorities in September.

Police said the Chinese suspect was a member of the illegal-immigration gang, but Turkish diplomats claimed he was a Turkish citizen and pressed local authorities to release him. Eli Ahmad was finally taken to Turkey and is still at large.