Police in Beijing allegedly held a fake casting call in order to find models working in China using tourist visas.
According to Business Model Mag and models on Facebook and other social media, at least four models have been jailed while as many as 60 were arrested.
In Guangzhou, police have apparently apprehended a couple models who have disclosed model apartment addresses, hoping to alleviate their treatment by co-operating. Models are advising each other to not open the door to anyone who may knock and hide portfolios and comp cards in bags while out on the street.
Police in the capital and elsewhere often launch intermittent crackdowns on so-called 'san-fei' (三非, three illegals) foreigners, those without permission to enter, work, or stay in China.
The use of tourism visas is common in the Chinese fashion industry, as former model Meredith Hattam recounted in an article for Fashionista:
In Asia's modeling industry, working under an illegal tourist visa is commonplace. Models are told by their scouts to say they're visiting on vacation, putting them in a precarious situation in which they’re entirely in the hands their employers: If a model denies even one job, she may lose her contract and her apartment. She can't work elsewhere, because she’s a tourist. And if her family or agency refuses to support her, she doesn’t have the financial means to get home.
Update: A petition launched by the Managers Agents Models Association (MAMA) calls on the Chinese government to intervene to resolve the matter:
We the members of MAMA representing the majority of the Models-Agents-Managers within the International modeling industry community respectfully ask the Chinese government and its cultural representatives to meet with MAMA representatives in order to better understand and regulate the working conditions and visa requirements for models working in China.
[...] In recent days many of our models, from many different nationalities, have been detained and jailed. These are young boys and girls who grace the covers of Worldwide magazines, the billboards of famous brands, the faces of television commercials and represent the dreams of young people worldwide who hope to become an International model.
Update: Fashionista reports that models in Guangzhou are also being investigated for alleged visa fraud, and cops are stopping people who "look like models" to check their immigration status:
There are also reports of models arrested in Guangzhou, near Hong Kong, who have given out addresses of model apartments in an effort to be cooperative. Our source in China says that models who have not been arrested are advising one another not to open their doors to strangers, not to answer phones and not to turn on the lights in their apartments at night.
Additionally, we hear that officials are stopping any foreigners who look like models in the street and demanding work papers. Models have been advised to hide comp cards while out — if they even go on castings at all, which they have also been advised against. Some agencies have moved their models to Hong Kong, where it is easier to get a work permit, or to hotels where they are to behave as tourists.
[Image: Models at a recent show in Shenzhen. Via CNS]
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