Human Smuggling/Trafficking and Illegal Immigration
Human Smuggling/Trafficking
Hong Kong is not directly involved in human smuggling/trafficking activities. However, as a major transportation hub in the region, Hong Kong is more vulnerable to human smuggling/trafficking activities.
Hong Kong Special Administrative Region's Enforcement
Effort
2. Under the policy directive of Security Bureau, all law enforcement departments are taking concerted and coordinated efforts to combat human smuggling/trafficking-
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(a) The Immigration Department and the Customs and Excise Department have continued to identify suspect vessels used in sea-borne smuggling/trafficking operations and to intercept vessels believed to be modified/adapted for use in transporting illegal immigrants.
(b) The Immigration Department exercises full vigilance at all immigration control points. Operations are regularly conducted at the Airport to prevent HKSAR from being used as a transit avenue of illegal migrants using forged or unlawfully acquired third country documents.
(c) In addition to the stringent actions in ensuring the integrity of the land border and sea boundary of the SAR on a day-to-day basis, the Hong Kong Police collect intelligence and investigate suspect organisers and conduct joint investigations with other enforcement agencies as and when appropriate.
(d) There are exchanges of intelligence between different law enforcement agencies, with local consulates, and with foreign as well as Mainland authorities on activities of forgery syndicates, trends and related matters.
(e) We adopt a tough prosecution policy against forged travel document users, couriers and suppliers. The maximum penalty for arranging passage to HKSAR of unauthorised entrants is a fine of $5,000,000 and imprisonment for 14 years.
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3. Some examples of our effort in combating human smuggling/trafficking and recent cooperation with the international community were as follows-
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(a) In August 2009, police received a referral from the Philippine Consulate General that two Filipina victims were deceived to come to Hong Kong to work as prostitutes. A joint operation was conducted with Immigration Department resulting in the arrest of two Filipina traffickers at a private club
(b) In September 2009, a Thai female made a report to Police alleging that she was deceived to come to Hong Kong for prostitution. With the assistance of the Immigration Department and the Royal Thai Consulate, Police swiftly identified and arrested the trafficker.
(c) In November 2009, an operation codenamed “Sky League” was conducted by the Immigration Department with the participation of local consulate representatives of Australia, Canada, France, Israel, the Netherlands, the United Kingdom and the United States of America at the Hong Kong International Airport. Six persons were arrested, and four questionable passports and a questionable visa were seized
(d) In November 2010, Operation “Sky League” was mounted again with the participation of local consulate representatives of Australia, Canada, France, Germany, the Netherlands, New Zealand, the United Kingdom and the United States of America. Six persons were arrested and three questionable passports were seized.
(e) In June 2011, Hong Kong Police conducted a joint operation with Immigration Department and Mainland Authority aimed at combating cross-border human smuggling and vice activities. Two HK males were arrested for “Trafficking in person to Hong Kong for prostitution”.
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4. The HKSAR Government also maintains close cooperation and exchanges with other governments on matters relating to population movements and irregular migration at international/regional fora. Recent examples are-
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(a) The 9th Meeting of the “INTERPOL Asia-Pacific Expert Group on Asian Organized Crime” was held in June 2011 at Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam. Through the meeting, both human trafficking and smuggling situation was updated with intelligence and experience shared among member countries.
(b) In 2010, representatives from the law enforcement departments attended various overseas conferences / workshops: the 1st Interpol Global Trafficking in Human Being Conference in Damascus, Syria in June 2010; the Bali Process Workshops on ‘Immigration Aspects of Seaport Security’ held in Singapore in July 2010; the 16th Pacific Rim Immigration Intelligence Conference held in Vancouver, Canada in September 2010; the 24th Seminar on Immigration Control held in Tokyo, Japan in December 2010; and the Bali Process Senior Officials’ Meeting and Fourth Ministerial Conference held in Bali, Indonesia in March 2011.
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Continuing Efforts and Cooperation with the Trade
5. To combat the problem of using containers in vessels to smuggle illegal immigrants, Hong Kong law enforcement departments have stepped up actions at sea and intensified exchange of intelligence with their overseas and Mainland counterparts.
6. The Customs and Excise Department has kept up effort in combating human smuggling in cargo containers. From 2009 up to 1st half of 2011, a total number of 25,569 containers were checked respectively at various container terminals and no stowaway was detected. Sophisticated Mobile X-ray Vehicle Scanning Systems have been deployed since August 2001 to enhance the inspection of containers at cargo terminals. Besides, Customs officers conduct regular operations on overseas-bound vessels to detect human smuggling activities.
7. Hong Kong Police, the Immigration Department and the Customs & Excise Department had jointly organised seminars on human smuggling for traders of the sea-freight industry. The aim was to arouse their consciousness and enhance their knowledge of preventive measures to avoid being exploited by migrant smugglers. Discussions were also held with container traders/ terminal operators and a number of measures had been secured to improve port-security-
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report the use of "soft-top", refrigerated and modified containers to the Customs and Excise Department prior to export;
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report immediately to the Customs and Excise Department any containers suspected to have been altered for the purpose of human smuggling;
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report immediately any suspicious shipments to the relevant law enforcement agencies; and
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implement agreed procedures to scrutinize new clients' business registration and relevant documents before accepting order.
No. of forged travel documents intercepted by the Immigration
Department.
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Year |
2006 |
2007 |
2008 |
2009 |
2010 |
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No. of forged travel documents detected territory-wide |
2 387 |
1 598 |
1 423 |
1 207 |
1 299 |
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No. of forged travel documents detected at Airport |
1 394 |
1 002 |
794 |
688 |
836 |
No. of Mainland illegal immigrants arrested territory-wide
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Year |
Total no. of Mainland Illegal Immigrants Arrested |
Increase or decrease compared with the previous year (%) |
|
2006 |
3 173 (9) |
+44.81 |
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2007 |
3 007 (8) |
-5.23 |
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2008 |
2 368 (6) |
-21.25 |
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2009
|
1 890 (5) |
-20.19 |
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2010
|
2 340 (6) |
+23.81 |
Note :
( ) denotes daily average
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