Thirty-three Vietnamese nationals who had entered the country illegally and intended to work illegally in Fujian Province were arrested in Shenzhen March 6, CCTV News reports. The youngest of the illegal immigrants was just 17.

Courtesy of Baidu images

The Guangdong Province Public Security Bureau received a tip off last month that a criminal organization intended to transport the illegal immigrants from Pingxiang and Dongxing in Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region, according to YESKL.

After an investigation, the operation saw three buses with Guangxi license plates seized at the toll booth on the Longgang stretch of the Jihe Expressway at 1:45 a.m. on March 6.

The illegals consisted of 23 men and 10 women and most were from the same town in Vietnam.

This 2010 article in China Daily talks of a surge in illegal immigration from Vietnam because the pay is better in China. In one case last year, 42 Vietnamese illegal immigrants were nabbed.

Forbes offers this analysis of the situation of illegal immigration into China from Southeast Asia.