Searchlights go up to block illegal crossings and silent carriers

Super bright searchlights have been installed at Shenzhen Bay coastlines along with barricades to combat illegal border crossings from the Hong Kong side after Covid infections were found among people who fled to the mainland last month.

With the fifth wave showing every sign of worsening, Shenzhen has raised the height of its barbed wire border fences and installed super bright searchlights in Shenzhen Bay to combat illegal crossings.

The municipality's deputy head of public security, Gan Guiping, said the moves were aimed at smugglers as well, while more measures will be rolled out.

Coast guards, border officers and marine law enforcers are, he said, strictly implementing a registry for boats and ships, while patrol ships will be stationed at strategic positions and patrol boats do the heavy lifting in regards to checks.

Authorities will also strictly patrol and monitor 18 piers within the city, as well as yacht clubs and shelters for leisure boats, and urge owners to park their boats in shelters and not to make unnecessary departures.

This is a second round of measures rolled out by Shenzhen to combat illegal border crossings from Hong Kong, with Zhuhai striking first with a bounty offer of 100,000 yuan (HK$123,000) for tipoffs on people who crossed the border illegally in an effort to flee a rampant Covid outbreak in the SAR.

Guangdong recently arrested 18 people who crossed over from Hong Kong illegally, with some of them testing positive in places such as Guangdong, Shanghai and Hunan.

The biggest such case saw 15 people taking a boat from Tung Chung to Zhuhai and four of them testing positive after arriving in Guangdong and Hunan on February 15.

These people who crossed over illegally were said to have come from Guangzhou, Shenzhen, Foshan, Dongguan and Huizhou in Guangdong as well as from Hunan and Fujian provinces.

Two of the four who tested positive, Xiao and Deng, arrived in Zhuhai at 4am by boat, and drove up in a car from Guangdong to Hunan on February 14, before going to a hospital in Chenzhou city for a virus test.

The other two went window shopping at luxury brand shops in Tianhe district and Chimelong Paradise - a major amusement park in Panyu district - before going to a hospital in Guangzhou, where they tested positive.