Public security authorities in the southern province of Guangdong vowed yesterday to tighten efforts to maintain "a safe public order" amid closure of a large number of factories and forced unemployment of migrant workers due to the global financial crisis.

"The closure of factories, along with unemployment of an increasing number of migrant workers, may pose potential threats to the public security," He Guangping, deputy director of the Guangdong provincial public security department, said at the local people's congress, which ended yesterday.

Public order might become worse this year if migrant workers, under pressure of losing jobs, were seduced to commit crimes such as robbing, He said.

Measures include improved technology, such as digital surveillance cameras in public to monitor public order, and more plainclothes police in such areas, he said.

Additionally, the public security authority will intensify efforts to crack down on economic crimes committed by bosses following the closure of factories.

"Affected by the global financial crisis, some bosses deliberately ran away after they found it hard to maintain business, leaving thousands of workers in desperation to reclaim defaulted wages," said Xu Wenhai, director of the economic crime investigation bureau under the provincial public security department.

More than 500 such cases were reported in the province last year, of which 80 percent have been solved by the public security authorities, he said.

(China Daily February 18, 2009)