15 persons arrested during anti-illegal worker operations
The Immigration Department (ImmD) mounted a series of territory-wide anti-illegal worker operations, including an operation conducted at an immigration control point, from December 5 to yesterday (December 11). A total of 13 suspected illegal workers and two suspected employers were arrested as of yesterday.
During the targeted operation to combat illegal workers conducted at the Lo Wu Control Point on December 9, ImmD investigators intercepted and examined several arriving passengers with suspicious purposes of visit . Among those intercepted, a Mainlander male was found in possession of a suspected forged Construction Worker Registration Card. The 42-year-old man was arrested on suspicion of possessing a forged document and contravening his conditions of stay by taking up illegal employment in Hong Kong as a visitor.
During other anti-illegal worker operations, including operations codenamed "Twilight" and "Contribute" and a joint operation with the Hong Kong Police Force codenamed "Champion", investigators raided multiple target locations including laundries, renovating flats, and warehouses. Twelve suspected illegal workers and two suspected employers were arrested. The arrested suspected illegal workers comprised five men and seven women, aged 25 to 67. Among them, two women were holders of a recognizance form, which prohibits them from taking any employment. Two men, aged 54 and 71, were suspected of employing the illegal workers and were also arrested.
The investigation into the suspected employers is ongoing, and the possibility of further arrests is not ruled out.
An ImmD spokesman said, "Any person who contravenes a condition of stay in force in respect of him or her shall be guilty of an offence. Also, visitors are not allowed to take employment in Hong Kong, whether paid or unpaid, without the permission of the Director of Immigration. Offenders are liable to prosecution and upon conviction face a maximum fine of $50,000 and up to two years' imprisonment. Aiders and abettors are also liable to prosecution and penalties. Moreover, any person who makes, possesses or uses a false instrument commits an offence and is liable to prosecution and, upon conviction, subject to imprisonment for 14 years," an ImmD spokesman said."
The spokesman warned, "As stipulated in section 38AA of the Immigration Ordinance, an illegal immigrant, a person who is the subject of a removal order or a deportation order, an overstayer or a person who was refused permission to land is prohibited from taking any employment, whether paid or unpaid, or establishing or joining any business. Offenders are liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of $50,000 and up to three years' imprisonment. As stipulated in section 20(1)(a) of the Immigration Ordinance, the Chief Executive may make a deportation order against an immigrant, prohibiting the immigrant from being in Hong Kong at any time thereafter if the immigrant has been found guilty in Hong Kong of an offence punishable by imprisonment for not less than two years."
The spokesman stressed that it is a serious offence to employ people who are not lawfully employable. Under the Immigration Ordinance, the maximum penalty for an employer employing a person who is not lawfully employable, i.e. an illegal immigrant, a person who is the subject of a removal order or a deportation order, an overstayer or a person who was refused permission to land, has been significantly increased from a fine of $350,000 and three years' imprisonment to a fine of $500,000 and 10 years' imprisonment to reflect the gravity of such offences. The director, manager, secretary, partner, etc, of the company concerned may also bear criminal liability. The High Court has laid down sentencing guidelines that the employer of an illegal worker should be given an immediate custodial sentence.
According to the court sentencing, employers must take all practicable steps to determine whether a person is lawfully employable prior to employment. Apart from inspecting a prospective employee's identity card, the employer has the explicit duty to make enquiries regarding the person and ensure that the answers would not cast any reasonable doubt concerning the lawful employability of the person. The court will not accept failure to do so as a defence in proceedings. It is also an offence if an employer fails to inspect the job seeker's valid travel document if the job seeker does not have a Hong Kong permanent identity card. Offenders are liable upon conviction to a maximum fine of $150,000 and to imprisonment for one year. In that connection, the spokesman would like to remind all employers not to defy the law by employing illegal workers. The ImmD will continue to take resolute enforcement action to combat such offences.
Under the existing mechanism, the ImmD will, as a standard procedure, conduct an initial screening of vulnerable persons, including illegal workers, illegal immigrants, sex workers and foreign domestic helpers, who are arrested during any operation with a view to ascertaining whether they are trafficking in persons (TIP) victims. When any TIP indicator is revealed in the initial screening, the ImmD officers will conduct a full debriefing and identification by using a standardised checklist to ascertain the presence of TIP elements, such as threats and coercion in the recruitment phase and the nature of exploitation. Identified TIP victims will be provided with various forms of support and assistance, including urgent intervention, medical services, counselling, shelter or temporary accommodation and other supporting services. The ImmD calls on TIP victims to report crimes to the relevant departments immediately.
For reporting illegal employment activities, please call the dedicated hotline 3861 5000, by fax at 2824 1166, email to anti_crime@immd.gov.hk, or submit "Online Reporting of Immigration Offences" form at www.immd.gov.hk.
15 persons arrested during anti-illegal worker operations Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
15 persons arrested during anti-illegal worker operations Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
Remarks by CE on matters related to Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po at media session
Following are the remarks by the Chief Executive, Mr John Lee, on matters related to the Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po at a media session today (December 12):
Reporter: Good afternoon, Mr Lee, some English questions. Firstly, would the Independent Committee have less investigative power to summon evidence and witnesses unlike a commission of inquiry, especially when the circumstances may not have officially been constituted as a crime yet? How would the Government intend to address this potential issue? With regard to your nine-month time frame as you mentioned, is this enough time? And do you foresee a possibility that you'll have to extend due to, as you mentioned, the complex and large-scale issues that the committee has to face? And the second question, on the potential redevelopment of Wang Fuk Court, what's the Government's plan and time frame on it so far? Does it have an idea where these funds will come from? And also, do you foresee a challenge in getting a consensus from the thousands of residents involved? Thank you.
Chief Executive: First of all, it is a mammoth task for the Independent Committee (Independent Committee Established in Relation to the Fire at Wang Fuk Court in Tai Po) to achieve examining two very big issues. The first is regarding the causes and circumstances that led to the fire, including the examination of fire service installations and equipment in the buildings, and the supervision and responsibility for their effective operation; whether the construction safety requirements, standards, supervision and day to day maintenance regime for the building maintenance and renovation works were adequate; regarding the building maintenance and renovation works, whether the prevailing list of materials meeting safety standards is comprehensive, and whether related verification and testing systems are effective; the roles and responsibilities of personnel with supervisory roles across all stages, including government offices, authorised professionals, contractors and others; and the liabilities arising from the aforementioned issues. For just this theme, under this topic, you can say the amount of issues to be examined is already a lot.
Then the Independent Committee will have to look at another very important issue, which is, regarding large-scale building maintenance and renovation works, to examine whether there are systemic problems such as undue connected interests, conflicts of roles, or improper collusion across all stages of the works; and whether bid-rigging corruption or irregularities were involved in the tendering process of these works. You can see this second issue is an issue that has been troubling a lot of Hong Kong people, because we all live in buildings, and we all, at some stage, will be doing large-scale renovation work, so it affects everybody. We have been seeing cases where a lot of problems have arisen. We should indicate that there are systemic problems, as I have highlighted in this second topic.
So you are right, nine months is a very challenging time indeed, but I want to solve the problem as quickly as possible. I want to give what I regard as a realistic time frame, provided the Independent Committee is given sufficient means to manoeuvre. While ensuring the examination is just, they can streamline the procedure and be given more flexibility, so that they can finish their work within the nine months. I also have given them a reserve power; that is, if the Independent Committee considers, while examining all these complicated issues, there may be one which they think, by exercising the power that is given to a statutory commission of inquiry, will help them complete their work, then I am very willing to consider a recommendation by the Independent Committee to seek appointing them as the commission of inquiry. This is the reserve power I will give to them. First, to tell everybody that we must co-operate and assist the Independent Committee to do its very important job, because when the Independent Committee wants to exercise statutory powers, they will be given according to the law and the procedure with the CE-in-Council, considering the recommendation and then deciding to appoint a commission of inquiry with the Independent Committee functioning as such. That will help the Independent Committee to finish all the different issues they want to address within the nine months.
I also have mentioned that the Independent Committee can always submit interim reports for issues that they believe have finished their work and let the Government take immediate action. I am very grateful to Mr Justice Lok, because he wants to really help Hong Kong as a whole to address and solve all these problems. He shares the same belief as I do, to ensure that we can do it as soon as possible. I must express my sincere gratitude to the three members of the Independent Committee. It is a big responsibility and challenging tasks within only nine months, but they all have the passion and the love for Hong Kong to be so courageous to take up this responsibility. I am really thankful to them. I take my hat off to them.
Regarding the long-term housing issues for the victims and the families who suffer in this Tai Po big fire, of course, I am very concerned about the arrangements that may be made possible to take care of their needs, but they have very divergent needs, obviously, because we have so many families, and each family may have their own thinking. There have been a lot of views about what we can do, and I have explained them in my opening. What is important is to listen to what they want. I think they may want things very differently, and whether we will be able to have different options for different families to choose is important, so collecting views from them is very important. Everybody has a very good heart, trying to help them, but I think it will be up to them to tell us what they want, even though there may be different wants and different needs. At the same time, they are still undergoing a difficult period of big transition. While I ask the Task Force (Task Force on Emergency Accommodation Arrangements) to collect views, I think they have to do it in a very tactful manner. We do not want to upset the families while they are at this difficult time. There may be a process for the Task Force to go through to talk to the families in a tactful and right way at the right moment of time as well. That may take a little bit of time, but as I have always asked my people to do, we always want to finish all these things as soon as possible, because the sooner we address all these issues and problems, the quicker we can recover our normal life. I do remember the important message given by Dr CC Lam (Chairman of the Advisory Committee on Mental Health, Dr Lam Ching-choi) when he talked about the importance of mental health and psychological health, which is we should try to come back to normal, day-to-day life as soon as possible. That will be helping not just society but, most importantly, helping the victims and helping their families to go through this difficult time. We will work on that.
(Please also refer to the Chinese portion of the remarks.)
Remarks by CE on matters related to Wang Fuk Court fire in Tai Po at media session Source: HKSAR Government Press Releases
