• Queuing problem of transit in Huanggang by bus

         In the summer holiday of 2017, a travel agent reflected that the tour groups that entered Hong Kong through Huanggang Port had to spend over four hours for both the travelling time and immigration procedures. The condition was considered serious. On 20 July, 2017, I wrote to Mr. Frank Chan Fan, Secretary for Transport and Housing, and Mr. Erick Tsang Kwok-wai, Director of Immigration, and requested them to address the matters seriously and to improve as soon as possible.

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• To avoid impacts on real tourists by the measure of "Pre-arrival Registration for Indian Nationals" (PAR)

      The loopholes in Hong Kong's strategy of "Non-refoulement claims" have resulted in the emergence of "bogus refugees" and caused a lot of social security problems. In fact, the Authority has begun to review the strategy since the end of 2016. In January 2017, the Immigration Department implemented the PAR. To enjoy the visa-free arrangement when travelling to Hong Kong, Indian nationals must register online in advance. Although the measures have been effective in combating the issue of "bogus refugees" to a certain extent, some travel agents that serve Indian tourists reflected that there were more than 30% of the applications being rejected. In addition to affecting the business, some Indians even misunderstood that Hong Kong did not welcome Indian tourists.

       On 11 November, 2016 and 6 June, 2017, I spoke at the Panel on Security and expressed my worries that the pre-immigration control would prevent real tourists from coming to Hong Kong. I doubted that the measure was itself a form of "hypercorrection" and hoped that any adjustments made by the Authority would not affect real tourists.

 

 

7 June, 2017 – Oriental Daily News