Handling of Cases of Hong Kong People Reported Missing (2016/01/20) 

MR YIU SI-WING: Deputy President, the Secretary mentioned in part (2) of the main reply that Government has "by way of an administrative arrangement and on the basis of mutual respect for the relevant laws of both sides, put in place a reciprocal notification mechanism with the Mainland", and that the Police have been "maintaining a police co-operation mechanism with relevant Mainland counterparts". I would like to ask the Secretary how different these two mechanisms are. Under what circumstances and with which Mainland departments or units will the SAR Government activate these 

SECRETARY FOR SECURITY: I thank the Member for the supplementary question. Concerning these two mechanisms, the first one is a reciprocal notification mechanism, which is an administrative arrangement implemented since 1 January 2001. The two sides act in accordance with their respective laws and notify the other party as early as practicable about people who are subject to criminal coercive measures. The targets of this mechanism are mainly: first, Hong Kong residents; and second, people who are subject to criminal coercive measures.
Another mechanism is a police co-operation mechanism; it can be said that this mechanism covers a notification mechanism and has a wider scope. Other issues can also be dealt with through the co-operation mechanism and this form of collaboration is done in a similar way as that of the Interpol. The counterparts are the same.