Hong Kong  - Twenty asylum seekers, including nine Afghans, were being detained in Hong Kong Sunday after arriving in waters off the former British colony in a rickety wooden sampan.

The group, which includes the first Afghan asylum seekers to the city of 7 million, was intercepted early Saturday amid a surge in the number of south Asians heading for Hong Kong.

The Afghans - a husband and wife with their two sons and another Afghan woman - were detained along with a group of Pakistani and Nepalese men off the west coast of Hong Kong's New Territories.

A marine police spokesman said there were no life jackets on the sampan, which was virtually sinking, and the people smugglers had "totally disregarded" the safety of the people on board.

A 24-year-old people smuggler from China, known as a "snakehead", was arrested on suspicion of aiding and abetting illegal immigrants, illegal immigration and endangering the safety of others at sea.

Scores of asylum seekers from south Asia have in recent months entered Hong Kong using people smugglers who take them by boat via treacherously busy shipping lanes from neighboring southern China.

In October, 13 Pakistani men were detained after being smuggled into the wealthy city from China on board a wooden sampan skippered by a 16-year-old Chinese youth.

The number of non-Chinese illegal immigrants arrested in Hong Kong jumped from around 40 people a month at the beginning of the year to more than 150 a month in recent months.

The surge is believed to be related to a High Court ruling in March that asylum seekers in Hong Kong can work in the city while awaiting decisions on their applications. There are currently around 5,600 asylum seekers in Hong Kong.

The ruling appears to have created a lucrative new trade for "snakeheads" from China who used to make their living smuggling Chinese migrants across the border into Hong Kong. (dpa)