Secretary for Security TK Lai co-chaired the fourth Guangdong-Hong Kong meeting on combatting the smuggling of illegal immigrants with Director-General of the Public Security Ministry’s Border Control Department Chen Dingwu in Hong Kong today.
The meeting reviewed joint operations against the smuggling of non-ethnic-Chinese illegal immigrants into Hong Kong in the past year, and discussed the strategies to be deployed next.
Mr Lai thanked the ministry for its support in the anti-smuggling operations, which were jointly conducted with Mainland law enforcement agencies.
Since the start of operations last February, Mainland authorities have arrested more than 40,000 non-ethnic-Chinese illegal immigrants and shutdown 21 smuggling syndicates, involving over 3,200 suspects in 260 cases of attempted smuggling.
The number of these illegal immigrants intercepted in Hong Kong dropped in the second half of 2016, with an average of 110 arrestees per month, a 65% drop compared to the monthly average of 2015.
During the same period, 3,838 non-refoulement claims were received, a 36% drop compared to 2015.
Mr Lai said Hong Kong and Mainland law enforcement agencies must continue to work closely together to crack down on smuggling syndicates.
Apart from combating illegal immigration activities, the Immigration Department has implemented the online pre-arrival registration requirement for certain countries to minimise the chance of high-risk visitors entering Hong Kong under visa-free arrangements.
In the coming year, the Government will focus on efforts to amend the Immigration Ordinance to improve screening procedures, he added.
