URUMQI - More than 70 people suspected of abducting, coercing and organizing Xinjiang children to beg and steal have been apprehended throughout the country amid a national anti-abduction campaign.

Since May 1, eight crime groups have been targeted throughout China, focusing on over 70 suspects, a spokesman with Northwest China's Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region said late Sunday.

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The region has sent bilingual police, capable of speaking both Mandarin and Uygur, to public security authorities of other provinces to assist in the campaign, said the spokesman.

The provinces include Anhui, Jilin, Heilongjiang, Hubei and Guangdong, he said.

Children from Xinjiang are sometimes found roaming the streets in cities across the country, some coerced to beg or steal.

In late April, the Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region government promised to bring wandering children back home and send them back to school.

The Ministry of Public Security also ordered the nation's police to launch a crack-down on the kidnapping and coercing of Xinjiang children.