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Following is a written reply by the Secretary for Security, Mr Ambrose S K Lee, to a question by the Hon Lau Kong-wah on against illegal immigration in the Legislative Council today (October 31):
Question:
Recently, a number of robberies which occurred in various districts are suspected to be committed by illegal entrants ("IEs"). In this connection, will the Government inform this Council:
(a) of the number of crimes suspected to be committed by IEs last year as well as the details of such cases, and how the figure compares with those of the previous two years;
(b) whether police officers were deployed to regularly patrol rural areas and search for IEs in hiding last year; if so, of the number of IEs arrested; and
(c) of the districts with relatively more crimes suspected or found to be committed by IEs last year, and whether additional police officers have been deployed to patrol those districts?
Reply:
Madam President,
(a) Statistics on crimes suspected to be committed by illegal
immigrants and the categorisation of those crimes for the past two
years are at the Annex.
(b) & (c) Counting by Police districts, the Police have arrested more illegal immigrants for crimes in the Border District, Marine Outer Waters District and Yuen Long District. Various Police districts will, having regard to their respective crime trends, carry out "Operation Champion", which primarily targets activities of illegal immigrants, from time to time as necessary and step up patrolling of places frequented by illegal immigrants. For rural areas, having regard to the crime trends and with particular attention to the crime black spots, the Police will step up patrolling of these areas. The Police will also deploy the Police Tactical Unit or the Quick Reaction Force to undertake operations against crimes and illegal immigration in country parks and remote rural areas. In 2006, the Police arrested 69 illegal immigrants in the countryside or hill areas (including the Frontier Closed Area). Up to September this year, the Police have arrested 37 illegal immigrants.
Ends/Wednesday, October 31, 2007
Issued at HKT 16:26
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