China opposes any form of illegal migration and is willing to crack down on it through international cooperation, said Chinese Foreign Ministry Spokesman Kong Quan at a regular press conference Thursday.

Kong made the remarks when answering a question on whether the eight Chinese citizens who had been kidnapped in Iraq were illegally working in Iraq.

A video tape from the pan-Arab al-Jazeera TV channel showed eight Chinese being flanked by masked gunmen on January 18.

Initial investigation showed that the eight Chinese are aged between 18 and 40 and identified as citizens from Pingtan County in Fujian Province. They had been working at a textile factory in the southern Iraqi city of Najaf and were kidnapped in mid-January en route to Jordan by gunmen.

Kong said the eight went to Iraq through intermediaries. The government will investigate into those intermediaries and make penalties if there is any illegal involvement.

The eight hostages were transferred to the Chinese Embassy in Iraq on January 23 and came back to Fuzhou, capital of Fujian Province, on Wednesday.