MR YIU SI-WING (in Cantonese):

President, the "bogus refugees" resulting from non-refoulement claims in recent years have given rise to many social problems in Hong Kong. These claimants entered Hong Kong through different channels and exploited the loopholes in the laws of Hong Kong to overstay in Hong Kong during the course of their claims. It was not until their non-refoulement claims failed that they could be repatriated. During their stay, not only a large amount of government funds was wasted to protect their daily lives. What is worse is that some claimants would take up illegal employment and even commit such illegal acts as robbery, assault and drug trafficking during their stay in Hong Kong.

 

Among the overall crime figures last year, more than 900 non-refoulement claimants were arrested, up by 40% over the previous year. The situation has become increasingly serious. These claimants who broke the law were not under persecution in their home countries as we have imagined. Rather, they turned out to be a malignant tumour affecting the law and order in Hong Kong, about which members of the public are gravely concerned.

 

Similarly, the tourism industry has suffered deeply. To plug the loopholes in the non-refoulement claim mechanism, the Immigration Department ("ImmD") introduced the pre-arrival registration requirement for Indian nationals in January 2017, under which Indian nationals must first apply for and successfully complete the pre-arrival registration online before coming to Hong Kong. Otherwise, ImmD will require them to apply for an entry visa before they can visit Hong Kong. If there is any slight suspicion, they will be prohibited or suspended from entering Hong Kong. This initiative is indeed effective in blocking Indians who may exploit the policy loopholes, but it has led to a drop in the number of Indian visitors to Hong Kong in recent years, which decreased by 18.3% in 2017, 1.6% in 2018 and 12.6% in 2019. It has somewhat affected the room for Hong Kong's expansion into the Indian market, causing a considerable impact on our industry's business.

 

President, in order to deal with the huge backlog of non-refoulement claims which have been pending for a long time, the Government has to conduct laborious work such as screening and prosecution in accordance with the established statutory procedures, thereby greatly increasing the workload of ImmD and the Judiciary. Not only does it cost a large amount of public money every year, but also affects the efficiency of the organizations concerned in providing services to the people of Hong Kong. This year, the Security Bureau has set aside nearly $1.3 billion for the major expenditure of the relevant work, representing an increase of $260 million over the previous year. In view of this, there have been many calls in society for tightening the relevant policy on the claimants who have abused the mechanism, and repatriating them to their home countries expeditiously, so as to alleviate the long-term burden on public funds and the threat posed to law and order. Through this amendment exercise, the Government seeks to improve the procedures for processing non-refoulement claims and introduce enhanced measures in three aspects, that is, law enforcement, removal and detention. As this is conducive to the enhancement of efficiency of various departments in handling relevant cases and enforcement, it is certainly welcomed by the public.

 

President, the Immigration (Amendment) Bill 2020 ("the Bill") proposes to amend Part II by adding provisions to empower the Secretary for Security to make regulations on the provision of information relating to the passengers of a carrier. As China is a contracting state of the International Civil Aviation Organization, the Special Administrative Region Government has the duty to comply with the standards set out in the Convention on International Civil Aviation ("CICA") in order to fulfil its international obligation. The updated CICA requires all its members to implement the Advance Passenger Information system. According to the requirement, airlines shall provide information on all passengers and crew members to the immigration authorities in the port of destination before flight departure. The practice is adopted in accordance with the requirement, not for any political purpose as some malicious people have smeared. However, to facilitate the operation, I suggest that the authorities draw up clear guidelines for airlines in the light of the said amendment, including details such as the format of the list of advance information to be submitted by the airlines, the time limit for submission and responsibilities of the airlines. To ensure that airlines can effectively comply with the requirements after the implementation of the amendment, the Government may consider providing a transitional period to allow airlines to take time to adapt. It should also provide support to facilitate their implementation of the new measures.

 

President, I believe that the passage of the Bill can effectively reduce the number of illegal immigrants abusing non-refoulement claims in Hong Kong. If the relevant measures can bring about obvious improvement to the chaotic situation, I hope the Government will relax the pre-arrival registration requirement for Indian nationals in a timely manner and progressively resume normal people flow between the two places, so that business and tourism between the two places will be back on track.

 

With these remarks, President, I support the Bill.